


Poppies For Sango

by SonjaJade



Series: Poppies for Sango [1]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-14
Updated: 2012-06-14
Packaged: 2017-11-07 18:03:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 20
Words: 93,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/433867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>2yrs after Kagome's return and all hell's breaking loose again. Some demons don't have flesh... Character death, brief Sango/Ginta pairing, vulgar lang. lemons, some modern scenes, some religious scenes. VERY VERY DARK. Unlike anything you've ever read!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Touch Too Much

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine!****

* * *

"Miroku!" Sango called. She nearly had dinner ready. She had asked him to take their rambunctious children outside while she finished up. Today they were on her last nerve. The twins, Izumi and Shinju, had managed to find and quietly exploit a nearby mud puddle. They got so completely filthy, that on top of her usual daily chores, she had to stop and give them each a bath, as well as wash their kimonos. After that, they decided to take tiny Kichirou and practice acrobatics with him. Izumi lay on her back and hoisted Kichirou into the air by laying him on his stomach on her feet. He had his arms out wide like a bird as Shinju somersaulted overtop of them both. No one was injured, but Sango's heart nearly leapt out of her chest. Since then, she'd kept all three of them within her deadly sights, anxiously waiting for Miroku and InuYasha to return to the village.

Now they were all outside the house, Miroku laughing as his daughters wanted to terrorize poor InuYasha's soft puppy-dog ears. At least Kichirou seemed content to sit in his father's lap and suck quietly on his thumb. Kagome would be coming up from Kaede's any moment with Rin in tow, and within the hour Shippo would be coming back as well. Just a normal evening for Sango these days, since Naraku's defeat and Kagome's celebrated return.

"No, no, that's not how ya do it!" she heard InuYasha say. "Watch me!" Sango groaned. As much as she loved InuYasha, he had yet to become a father, although he and Kagome had just found out that she would be giving birth in the fall. He had no idea that four year-olds would mimic every word and every movement they found interesting or funny. He should have learned his lesson after she caught Izumi and Shinju saying "fuck" back and forth to one another and laughing hysterically. She had to spank both the twins and InuYasha that day! She wished Kagome hadn't relieved him of his subjugation beads; she would have traded anything for a nice series of "sits" on him.

She peeked out the door to see what her children would be learning next. InuYasha took a running start and flipped through the air, twisted halfway through, and landed facing the direction that he started from. The short statue that Miroku placed in the yard to ward of evil spirits was easy enough for InuYasha to clear, but she was sure if her daughters tried such a move they would be banging their heads against the stone.

"InuYasha!"

He stopped in his tracks. He knew that tone of voice, and was afraid to look at Sango, who glowered at him in the doorway. Finally he swallowed and met her gaze.

"Monkey see, monkey do, remember?" Her eyes were furious.

His face lightened. "I know! That's why I was showing Shinju the right way!"

She marched out the door and bonked him on the head with the spoon she was using to stir dinner with. "I'm still a demon slayer ya know! Just because I got married and had three kids doesn't mean I can't still take you out with the Hiraikotsu!" InuYasha shrank away from her, obviously a little more than afraid of what she could do with her enormous boomerang.

"And you sir-" she glared at Miroku, "you should do a better job of keeping InuYasha… what is it Kagome says? Oh- kid friendly!" She turned back to InuYasha. "He could keep you from getting into so much trouble if he wanted to. All he has to do is tell you to stop being stupid in front of them. Blame him for the lump on your dull head!" She smiled sarcastically in Miroku's direction and then giggled on the way back inside.

"Hey! I'm not the bad guy here!" Miroku smiled down at his son. "Those women, always ganging up on us men, aren't they?" Kichirou only smiled as he continued to suck his thumb.

"You said it!" InuYasha agreed. He looked up to see his lovely Kagome walking up the path from Kaede's hut, looking happy and already very pregnant, tired and ready to rest. He went to her and carried her the rest of the way, and as soon as her feet touched the ground she was overcome by tiny hands and faces, each wanting her attentions. Her face glowed with happiness as the girls asked her questions about her day, and Kichirou only wanted to smile and bat his lashes as she held him and patted his back.

"A real lady killer, just like his old man," InuYasha told Miroku. "Just wait till he gets his first slap. That's gonna bring back a lot of memories I bet."

"Ha!" Miroku laughed. "Kagome says that your child is going to be the able to kick the heads off demons on the day he's born, with all that kicking and jumping and moving it does almost all the time."

InuYasha smiled. He was so excited about becoming a father. He hadn't known his own old man, but he saw how Miroku was with his kids. Miroku's children were happy and healthy, and Miroku and Sango made sure they all knew how much they were loved, no matter what kind of trouble they got into. If that was the secret, then InuYasha felt he could be just as good a Papa as Miroku, and so most of this time spent around their house was InuYasha's way of studying up on how to be a good father.

"Dinner's ready everyone," Sango said as she stuck her head out the door. "Izumi wash those dirty hands right now please… Shinju you can't bring the rock inside, sweetie."

"Awwww!" she said as she dropped it at her feet. She pouted as she walked in, while Izumi raced to the water barrel at the side of the hut, dipping some water out with a gourd and rinsing the dirt from her fingers. Kagome carried Kichirou while InuYasha spotted Rin and motioned for her to hurry up. Miroku brought up the rear as they all joined together for their usual evening meal together.

Ever since Kagome had come back, they came together this way every night. In their travels, they had gotten used to eating and sleeping together, and at times even bathing together. The time that Kagome spent in her own era caused everyone to feel lost and separated. The day she came back was the day sunshine filled everyone's lives again. So to celebrate their camaraderie and to remember the time they all shared together on the paths and trails of Japan, they'd taken to eating at least one meal together everyday. It was almost mandatory and felt as old as tradition.

"Sorry I'm late guys!" Shippo said as he ran breathlessly in the door. Now the family was all here, and dinner began in earnest. It had a tendency to be loud in the cramped house, after all there were usually eight people (nine if you count Kichirou's jabbering) trying to talk to each other in a small space, and if you weren't talking to the person directly beside you, of course it was going to get loud. No one ever complained though. If someone wasn't there, like Kagome and InuYasha when she first became pregnant and was sick nearly all the time, people remarked how quiet it was.

After their nightly "feast" was over, Shippo helped Rin with the dishes and Miroku and InuYasha went outside to the plum tree where they shared a kiseru* when the weather was nice.

"I remember the first time you smoked, InuYasha," Miroku said fondly, as repacked the bowl of the pipe. "You choked and gagged and swore you'd never touch the stuff again, and now you almost hog all the tobacco for yourself. I think I might need to get a second pipe just for you!"

InuYasha smiled at the memory. It seemed such a long time ago… He had taken to occasionally having a puff with Miroku as he pined away for Kagome during the three years that the bone eater's well was closed off to them. Before either of them knew it, InuYasha had started buying the tobacco about half of the time.

"Yeah, I think you might be right. I never thought I'd catch on to it, but-" he took a puff and then handed the pipe back to Miroku, inhaling the smoke deeply, "I never thought I'd get past the coughing either," he said as the smoke puffed out of his mouth with every word. "Now if I could only blow the rings!"

The sun was beginning to set, and after saying their goodbyes Kagome and InuYasha walked hand in hand back to their house. The others soon left as well, and Miroku and Sango set about getting the children to sleep.

"Mama," Izumi said as she settled under the blanket, "can you tell us about before we were born? Back when you and Papa were out in the countryside?"

Sango smiled. They loved to hear about the adventures she and Miroku shared with InuYasha, Kagome and Shippo. "Well, there was this one time when we were following the priestess Tsubaki…" she said thoughtfully, as she recounted to her daughters how the dark priestess had put up a strong barrier around the temple where she had trained, and then how her temple sisters, the rookie Red and White priestesses, had created shikigami doubles of Kagome and InuYasha from strands of their hair. The girls listened with enchanted eyes as she told them how they over came the giant paper dolls with InuYasha's Kaze no Kizu, leaving out the part where Papa had felt of the priestesses' rears both before and after the fight.

"And if we hadn't fought them that day, history would have gone a different route and I then I would not be so lucky to have you two, or your brother, or your brave Papa." She smiled as her daughters yawned and snuggled down into the blankets. "Now sleep well my dears, I will see you in the morning." She kissed each of them on the cheek, including Kichirou, who had conked out just as the story was getting good. She stepped outside and heaved a sigh of relief, knowing her day's work was finally finished. She stretched her back, hearing a series of crackling pops run up her spine, and then felt her husband's strong hands at her waist as he kissed her sweetly on the neck.

"I love you more with every passing day," he whispered in her ear as he embraced her from behind. She was content in her husband's arms and kissed him on the cheek as his head laid on her shoulder. The only thing that was missing was her nightly puff on the pipe and the little cup of sake. Sango gently stepped away from Miroku to grab the bottle that she sealed and kept in a special trunk on the side of the hut. To the normal eye it looked like a simple storage bin filled with stones. Actually that was just a disguise, because inside was a modest cache of sake, precious oils and sacred incense. The stones were mostly to weigh the top down to keep little fingers from lifting the lid. They also served as a decoy to the common passerby.

Sango retrieved the bottle that was already opened and the two small cups and went to join Miroku under the plum tree. He had packed the pipe for her as she poured them a drink each. After corking the bottle, she lit the pipe Miroku had made for her with a twig from a small fire he'd started between them.

"Mmm," she said as she drew the smoke in. "InuYasha made a good choice this week." She had started when InuYasha did, but she and Miroku were the only ones who knew about her habit. Sango didn't think it was proper for a woman to smoke in front of others. She took exactly three puffs and one cup of sake every night before bed; she believed it relaxed her tired muscles and cleared her mind enough so she could sleep soundly.

"Yes, he's become quite the expert on that new shredded tobacco. I told him he could make a fortune shredding it at his house just using the iron reaver soul stealer!" He grinned at her as she easily blew five smoke rings and then giggled.

"What an honorable profession!" she said. "Beats the hell out of scamming villagers with false exorcisms."

"Hey, what I do is legitimate! I don't cheat anyone!" He sounded angry, but his eyes were smiling. "Besides, we need to keep the food stockpiled around here. You never know when someone's going to come up pregnant and then we'll have another mouth to cook for."

"I hope you're talking about Kagome because we have enough to take care of as it is!" She sighed and leaned back against the tree trunk. "I love my babies, but some days they are truly a handful." She downed the cup in one swig, and took the last puff from the kiseru. She handed it back to Miroku and asked, "Can you fill it again? I'm not feeling relaxed like I usually do."

Miroku thought it strange that she would double up her nightcap. Granted he smoked four times as much, and sometimes more than that. But Sango had been perfectly happy with three puffs for over three years… This was the first time she'd ever taken more than one turn at the pipe.

What surprised him even more was that she had uncorked the sake bottle and refreshed both their drinks. "What's troubling you my love?" he asked as she stared into the fire. He finished packing the bowl for a second time and handed the kiseru to her once more.

She played with it before lighting it this time. She smelled of the unburned leaf shreds, ran her fingers over the delicate carvings on the ivory kiseru, and then palmed the tiny silver bowl.

"Do you ever miss it?" Her beautiful soft eyes were lost in time, thinking back to days long gone. "Do you ever miss the days we spent hunting down Naraku?"

Miroku looked down at his right hand, the wind tunnel having only left a faint scar in the center of the palm. Honestly, he was glad it was over. He was glad to have his peaceful hillside with his family and closest friends nearby. He wanted to live out the rest of his days without having to ever fight a demon ever again. He thought back on those times now, and could only remember the desire in his heart to kill Naraku in order to save his own life from the kazanna in his hand, and to have Sango by his side as his wife. Now that he had finally accomplished both of those goals, and the addition of his three children, he could honestly say he had no desire to wander the countryside ever again.

"I don't know," he said, however, wanting to know how Sango felt about it. "I guess sometimes I miss it. There were some really good times. But there were also some really bad times, and I certainly don't miss all the awkwardness we had between each other. Sango, please tell me what you're thinking."

She lit the pipe and drew the smoke deep, blowing it out through her nose like a dragon, and in that moment, Miroku thought she looked frightening. "I was born to be a demon slayer. I trained to kill from an early age every unholy thing that walked the face of the earth. I have owned eight sets of armor just from doing what I did before we met. I miss the excitement of battle, the rush of flinging my Hiraikotsu, the thrill of victory over my opponent." She had a far away yet lustful look on her face. Miroku could sense the ache in her voice. She sighed quietly. "Now my only victories are when Kichirou doesn't wet himself and I get the wash done and hung up before the girls even wake up" She pulled her second draw from the pipe. "My only excitement is chasing a spider from a dark corner of the house and my only rush is the one I get from the sake at night." As if to reiterate this, she downed the cup again in a single gulp. When she went to refill it a third time, Miroku's hand reached out and touched hers lightly.

"I think that's enough Sango. You'll have a pounding headache in the morning if you go any further with the wine." This was almost too much. Sango seemed sad that Naraku had been defeated and that they were finally a family at peace. _Maybe I should stay home for a few days with her_ he thought. _Maybe she's been overwhelmed lately and just needs a little help for a few days._

Sango drew the last puff from her second round of tobacco and then knocked the ashes out of the bowl into the tiny fire Miroku built. She handed the pipe back to him and said, "You're right. I've had too much already. I'll put everything away."

"I'll get it," Miroku said quickly. "Why don't you go on to bed, I'll be in shortly." She smiled and kissed him, and then made her way into the house.

 _I can't believe she's homesick for the wilderness_ he thought as he put out the fire. All those nights they slept outdoors on the hard, cold ground; all those days they spent searching for the jewel shards and very nearly getting killed half the time. She was missing the miasma and the treachery of Naraku and his fiendish incarnations? This seemed very serious. Very serious indeed, and he decided then that he needed to spend more time with her to get to the bottom of all this.

He stepped inside the house where she had settled down beside Shinju, and then he settled himself next to Sango, where he held her tightly until she fell fast asleep. Finally he rolled over himself and found his own rest, and the sky overhead silently spun on.

* * *

* Kiseru is a long thin tobacco pipe with a small bowl that originated in China in the 13th century. Eventually it made its way to Japan, along with tobacco, where it was first sold in solid leaves and then finely shredded close to the end of the Sengoku period.

Lyrics to _Time_ property of Pink Floyd

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day  
You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way  
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town  
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way


	2. Ramble On

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations****

* * *

Miroku told InuYasha that morning that they were going to take a few days rest from their exorcizing, which seemed to irritate InuYasha, but he accepted it and ended up going into the village below to see what he could to occupy his time. Lucky for him there seemed to be plenty to do.

Sango was up at dawn as usual, scrubbing out dirty diapers and hanging them to dry in the fresh morning breeze. Just as she was setting the morning rice to boil and the children were waking up, Miroku came inside, and just in time to keep Kichirou from tripping over the blankets and falling on his face.

"Miroku? What are you doing here? I thought you would have left before now," she said as she added more rice to the pot.

"I thought you could use a little help here today," he said, helping Izumi with one of her ribbons that had gotten knotted in her hair. "I thought maybe we could take the children out into the wilderness later."

She smiled at him. He had listened to every word that had come pouring out of her silly mouth last night. "It's okay, my dear. You don't have to do this because of me."

"I'd _really_ like to see you in your armor again. I bet the girls would love it too." Kichirou sat grunting in Miroku's lap, to which Miroku said, "Save us some rice Mama, we'll be back," and he went to grab a clean diaper off the line outside.

Breakfast went smoothly and with Miroku's help, Sango got all of her daily chores done before noon. Miroku had kept the kids entertained with stories and little games, and Sango went into the house and found her armor.

The black tunic and leggings were dusty, and the small pauldrons and elbow cops looked dull; the leather strapping on the Hiraikotsu looked to be cracking in places, no doubt from dry rot. She went about brushing the dust from her clothes, shining her armor pieces and katana, and rubbing a little bit of oil on the leather parts of her ensemble. She'd grown a little wider at the hips, and so the pants didn't fit very well anymore, but she poured herself into them anyway and waited as the yokai hide they were made from stretched out to fit her form a little better. The boots creaked when she moved, and Hiraikotsu seemed heavier than it used to be, but when she stepped out of the house, her high ponytail flying in the breeze, she was nothing short of spectacular.

"Mama!" the girls cried, and they rushed to her to see her in armor that looked a lot like Uncle Kohaku's.

"Mama, can you really kill bad demons with the big Hiraikotsu?" Shinju asked.

"Did you really wear this when you took out that mean Naraku and saved the whole world?" Izumi asked with eyes as large as saucers.

Kichirou had walked up and was playing with the tassels on the Hiraikotsu. "Mama, pretty!"

Sango was blushing. She didn't feel beautiful in her too-tight clothes and her heavy weapon, but to her children, who had never seen her in it before, she was the heroine that she always told them about in their bedtime stories. "This is the very thing I wore on the day we defeated that evil Naraku, and the very weapon that killed those big, bad demons before you were all born."

Shinju seemed to be quite taken with Mama's large weapon, and Izumi seemed to be fascinated by the pretty pink elbow guards. Miroku bent and picked up Kichirou. He was smiling at her broadly. "You still wear it well, my love. Shall we set out on our adventure?"

"An adventure?" the girls gasped in unison.

Sango looked down at her daughters and said, "We're going to go out into the wilderness, would you like to do that?"

"Yes!" they cried. Sango tied a furoshiki* over Izumi's shoulders with diapers and their lunch in it, and then one for Shinju with their water. Miroku tied Kichirou in his onbuhimo* and put him on his back, and then they set out. Sango led the way through the village as the villagers gasped and bowed in reverence. Their first stop was to Kaede's where they stopped to visit with their three favorite priestesses.

"Oh my, Sango," Kaede said as the family walked into her small plot of medicinal plants. "What brings ye here in all your glory? Is there trouble?"

Sango smiled and said, "We're off on an adventure! I'm going to show the children what the Hiraikotsu can do." She waved at Rin who stood with her hand blocking the sun from her eyes. Rin waved back and then bowed reverently.

"Your mother was a powerful warrior, children," Kaede said to them as she knelt in her garden. "If it weren't for her, many of their battles would have certainly gone a more dreadful way. You're very fortunate to have such heroes for parents."

"Oba-chan*, did you ever go with Mama and Papa and the others?" Izumi asked.

"Oh child," Kaede laughed. "An old woman like me should have stayed home, but I did manage to go once, when we battled the Red and White priestesses from Tsubaki's temple. Did you know they thought I was a demon?"

"And you still are!" InuYasha called from behind her, walking with Kagome by his side. "Meanest demon I ever saw!"

"InuYasha! Don't tell them that!" Kaede swatted him on his hand when he got near.

"They know I'm only kidding, I wouldn't leave Kagome with you all day if I thought you were a real demon." InuYasha knelt before Shinju and Izumi and asked, "Do you want to see a _real_ demon?"

"Yeah!" they said together.

"Look up!" They all leaned their heads back just in time to see Sesshomaru flying overhead, with another gift for Rin no doubt. The girls giggled and then outright laughed when Sesshomaru sneered at his brother. His demeanor in the village was surely more subdued, but he was no doubt one of the most powerful yokai left in the world. Of course the girls didn't know this because Lord Sesshomaru was handsome and not at all scary like the ones in Mama's stories. They were expecting a true monster like Ryukotsusei or Goshinki.

"He's such a pain in the ass," InuYasha said, and then tried to do damage control after Sango glared at him for cursing, again, in front of her children. "Sault! Pain in the assault! He hurts when he strikes, with those poison claws and that energy whip. Pain in the assault!"

"Hey, why don't you two come with us? It'll be like old times!" Sango said with enthusiasm. Miroku saw her eyes light up at the prospect of this, her glimmer of hope to relive a few seconds of a past that brought her so much excitement.

Miroku moved to Kagome's side and whispered, "We're just going for walk into the woods so Sango can show them the Hiraikotsu's attack."

She nodded and with a wink to Miroku, she said, "I'd love to hunt down some nasty ole demons! Come on InuYasha, let's go with them!" He agreed, and soon all of them: Miroku, Sango, the four year old twins and the two year old toddler, InuYasha and Kagome, all set off down memory lane.

* * *

"It's going to be about two more weeks," Haru said. He looked out over the crimson field and smiled. It had taken months to get to this point, but soon it was going to all be worth it. His nearly deaf brother, Jiro, seemed more at home among the poppies than in their shack at the edge of the plot. It was a small crop; there was not a lot of fertile soil for the plant here. However, before coming here from the mainland, Jiro had the thought of bringing of some soil from their father's large farm. They had spread it out on top of the land and mixed it in with what was already here, now next years crop would be able to make it without the aid of the mainland dirt. Eventually, the crops would thrive on the soil that was already here, and then they would be able to expand their farm, reaping in the wealth that would replace the little lean-to shack with a proper manor. The wind blew gently and all the poppy blooms seemed to wave in the breeze in agreement.

The flowers had bloomed, and in a few days they would begin to fall. And then would come the fun part. It would take about a week for the seed pods to mature. Then Haru and Jiro would be out in the field, harvesting the milky, honey colored gummy liquid. Haru dreaded the hours upon hours it was going to take, but knew that the gummy balls they would be rolling was the only way to make their fortune and be the wealthy barons they so wanted to be. The people back home called it medicine. But how could it be a medicine of you wanted it all the time, even when you weren't sick? How could it make you better if you needed a little more of it, a little more, a little more, until you were smoking a lot of it?

Jiro told Haru to not concern himself with that. All they needed to concentrate on was making sure they got the harvest in to dry. After that, it was going to be easy. All they had to do was give a taste, and then they would come back for more. After all, this was the joy plant. And the joy gum was going to be the best thing to hit Japan since those foreigners with the wide eyes came and left their wondrous tobacco. They'd even brought the special pipes from father's storehouse and were planning to sell them as well. The money to be made was limitless.

"It's going to be about two more weeks," Jiro said. Evidently he hadn't heard him when he said it the first time. He sighed, letting it go. After all, they stood on the edge of a fortune, and soon it would come time to reap the rewards.

* * *

The girls had never been any further than the little meadow that bordered the east edge of the village, and now they stepped from the soft grassy field into InuYasha's Forest. Before that they stopped at the bone eaters well that no longer worked, and Kagome and InuYasha told Izumi and Shinju about Mistress Centipede and how the well allowed the two of them to travel back and forth between the Sengoku period and modern day Tokyo. Then they went into the woods and Kagome showed them where she found InuYasha pinned to the tree called Goshinboku.

"You had an arrow stuck in your shoulder, InuYasha?" Shinju asked him.

"Yep, it went straight through and stuck me to the tree." He pulled the neck of his haori and hadagi to the side to let the girls see the only scar he carried on his body. The only reason it scarred at all was because the wound was made by Kikyo's sacred arrow, and this would never completely disappear like his other wounds had.

"Oh," Izumi said, "it looks a little like Papa's hand."

"That's right. There used to be a hole in InuYasha's shoulder too, just like in my hand." Miroku showed the scar in his hand, and the little girls looked at both of them in wonder.

"Let's get moving. We still have a long way to go. Does anyone have to pee before we get started again?" Sango asked.

"I do!" Kagome said, and then the girls said they had to as well, so she took them away into the bushes.

"Sango, I have to say… well-" Miroku strode to her and whispered quietly in her ear, InuYasha picking up every word with his super sonic hearing but trying not to look as if he were listening.

Miroku whispered slyly, "If we were alone I would be ripping those clothes from you and taking you right here where we are. You are incredibly beautiful right now, and I'm glad I have a loose garment on, or my lust for you would surely be noticeable for miles around."

Sango's face was cherry red as Miroku risked a slap to the face by rubbing her rear. InuYasha was struggling not to laugh, and thus he wore a huge grin and a cherry face himself. "Shame on you, hanyo!" she said as she politely removed Miroku's hand. "Shame on you for listening in!"

"Are you kidding? That's juicy stuff he was telling you! No way I'd miss something that good!"

"Yeah well, don't go spilling it all over creation okay?"

"Spilling what all over creation?" Kagome asked as she returned with the girls.

"InuYasha, don't!" Sango had intended to run and put her hand over his mouth, but he nimbly jumped away from her. She reached behind her and took the Hiraikotsu in her hand and repeated, "InuYasha. Don't."

"Chill out Sango! I'm not gonna tell your kids!" He looked at his wife. "Hey Kagome! Miroku thinks that Sango is F-U-C-K-I-N-G S-E-X-Y and it's giving him a B-O-N-E-R!"

"Oh jeez, would you grow up already! Don't we have enough children here without having to add you to the list?"

InuYasha grunted, saying, "You women just don't know what's funny."

"You just don't know what maturity is!" Kagome cried.

"Listen here woman, I'm as mature as the next guy!"

"I'll say, most guys aren't all that mature to start with." She walked past him ignoring his angry stare. Sango laughed at that and then they started off on their adventure again.

"But you said I was a good MAN last night!" he said with a cocky grin, trying to embarrass her.

Without skipping a beat she said, "Yes, but I never said you were a MATURE man. Now hurry up or you'll get left behind!"

Miroku leaned between his daughters and said, "This happened all the time too. Kagome and InuYasha used to fight for days sometimes over such silly things!" The girls hung back with Miroku and Kichirou as InuYasha and Kagome continued to have their little squabble, and Sango searched for an appropriate place to hurl her weapon.

They walked on through the forest for another mile, the girls happily listening to the four adults relive stories of demons and fighting and far off places, and then they came to a large clearing in the middle of the woods. It was a kidney shaped area full of wildflowers and soft grasses. This was the perfect place.

Sango told her children about how the Hiraikotsu was made from the purified bones of slain demons, and that a single throw could take out many enemies. She let them feel of is honed finish, of its not so sharp edge, and they she even let them feel how heavy it was. She laid it on the ground and the girls tried to pick it up but couldn't. After a time, Sango stood staring at her boomerang; minutes ticked by.

"Well, are you gonna throw it or are you just gonna look at it?" InuYasha asked her.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I need a target InuYasha, do you volunteer?" He instantly hid behind Kagome. Sango chuckled. "Relax! I doubt I can hit a moving target anymore. But I still need something to throw it at… Oh, how about the top of that tall tree there?" She pointed to a tall pine that was a good eight to ten feet taller than the rest of the trees.

That was as good a target as any, and so she placed herself about two hundred yards away from the tree itself, which meant the distance was about two hundred and fifty from where she stood to the top of the pine tree. She took a deep couple of breaths. This was the first throw in about five years, and she was badly out of practice. She was nervous, and it showed.

"Hiraikotsu!" she yelled, flinging the boomerang hard. It sailed low through the air, going only about half the distance it should have before returning to her. Kagome saw the disappointment on her face and encouraged her to try again.

"You're just a little rusty's all Sango! It's been quite a long time after all."

"Right," she agreed, sadly. She took her weapon again, calmed herself and said _You can do this, Sango! You can do this!_ She took a running start this time, and threw it as hard as she could, tearing a muscle in her bicep as she did so. Hiraikotsu went a little farther than last time and flew much higher, making everyone think this was going to be the strike that would hit. But it began its turn back before it reached the tree. Sango's heart sank. What if she was never going to be able to throw it like before? What if her simple life had left her true talent unused and rusted up tight forever?

Her thoughts quickly ran down the road to despair. _Well, this is it Sango, it's all over now. Everything your father taught you about battle is gone to ruin in your old mother's body. All that training, all those grueling days of practicing… None of it matters now. It's all gone. I'll never be the warrior I was. I'll never again know that passion of battle again. My life is doomed to remain as plain and boring as the mud in my yard._

Kagome felt bad for Sango. She felt she had to say something, so she said, "Oh I know what it is Sango! It's because it's a harmless tree! If it were an ugly demon, you'd have something to aim at because it would be threatening us! You're missing the adrenaline and the danger of it all!"

But Sango had sat hard on the ground, and resting her elbows on her knees, she cupped her face in her hands and cried quietly to herself. Miroku passed Kichirou to Kagome as he went to Sango. He knelt beside her and she shoved him away, knocking him on his ass. She was seething.

She wasn't strong enough to throw her weapon, and it wasn't just a weapon, it was an extension of her arm, her hand, her very soul. Hiraikotsu was an axe, a shield, a battering ram, a long-range twirling blade of death… She had practically been raised with one in her hand. She slept with it, used it as a table and ate off of it, used it as a screen and changed clothes behind it. Hiraikotsu was not just a part of her life, at one time it _was_ her life. And then after Naraku's defeat, and after she'd finally realized the love between her and Miroku, Hiraikotsu was left to rot in a dark corner of their little house. She had babies and things to do that didn't involve the skills she spent countless hours refining and perfecting. Techniques that she studied hard for were now lost to the cavern of forgotten memories. Five years… She hated what she had become and what she had exchanged in order to get here.

"Mama? Are you okay?" Shinju asked in a small voice.

Sango was angry. That small voice is what kept her from keeping herself strong and ready for anything. That small voice caused her to go from a demon slaying wrecking ball to that of a dawdling child chaser and disciplinarian, not to mention full time cook and housekeeper. She was tired of it. All these years she tried to bury her true feelings in a grave, hoping they would die and she would finally accept, and love, her new life as a wife and mother.

Today that grave opened up, and the spirit of her Hiraikotsu spoke loudly for all to hear.

Miroku sat on his knees and made to touch her arm, but she swatted him off. "Sango…"

"This is all your fault!" she screamed. Kagome quickly took the children and began walking back to Kaede's, asking InuYasha to stay and tell her everything when it was over.

"Sango, what-"

"You did this to me! You made me a mother!" She pounded the ground with her angry fists, "I could've dealt with the housework, I could've dealt with the cooking, hell I could've even dealt with farming our own vegetables. I would have been able to find time to keep my skills sharp. I would have been able to go out and hunt our own meat as practice! But then I became pregnant. Then I had to think of the babies in my belly and how I couldn't use all that force to hurl Hiraikotsu for fear of tearing them loose from inside me!" She was sobbing. "And then when they were born and there two instead of one…" she shook her head. "There was no way that I was ever going to be able to hurl it again. Somehow I knew that, even back then."

"Sango, I want you to know that it doesn't matter to me if you can throw it or not, only that-"

"IT MATTERS TO ME!" Her voice echoed through the trees and sent birds flying from their roosts.

InuYasha knelt on the other side of her. "Sango, you're still the most dangerous human I know. I'm still afraid of you, for what its worth."

"What the hell good am I if I cannot wield the weapon that was made for me? What the hell good would you be if you could no longer wield the Tetsusaiga?"

"Remember Sango, I couldn't wield it for a while after Totosai reforged it. I transformed into a full demon, and I was a murderous beast! I had to train and learn all over again, but I did it because I had to in order to wield it. All you need is a little time to practice and-"

"Shut up! You know damn well I have no time to practice with three kids!" she cried into her hands. "All those times I stopped you from asking other women to bear your children Miroku… I should have let you have them, every single one of them. They were the mother type. I am not."

She got to her feet. She wanted to run, wanted to run for a thousand miles and not stop. "I love my children, and I love you Miroku, but I have to be able to fight. I'd gladly give Izumi, Shinju and Kichirou to Naraku himself if he would only come back."

Miroku stared at her, eyes wide and mouth open. He shed a single tear, and then stood himself on shaking legs. He turned and began walking the way Kagome had, without a word to anyone.

"Where are you going?" she called after him.

He turned around, eyes clear and calm now, but the track of the tear still visible on his left cheek. "You are not my wife anymore. Find another place to call home. You are not going to give my children up for the memories of the hell that we lived all that time ago. You've become consumed by the past and have no thought for your future. I leave you to find it on your own, without your family." Having said his piece, he continued on his way back to his children, leaving Sango and InuYasha alone in the clearing.

"GODS DAMN IT!" she roared as she picked up Hiraikotsu. She spun in a circle hard and fast and let it fly. She hit her original target, the top of the tallest tree, and sliced the top off neatly so as to even it up with the rest of the landscape. It flew back to her where she let it fall with a thud as it skidded on for another fifty feet.

"Sango, I'm sorry." InuYasha patted her on the shoulder, wanting to be of some comfort to her. "I'm sure you can both work it out. Kaede is great at helping Kagome and I through our shit. I'm sure she can help you two as well."

Suddenly Sango turned and planted a passionate kiss on InuYasha's lips. She grabbed his face and pulled him down into hers, forcing his lips open and tasting his mouth. He was resisting hard, but he couldn't shake her grip. Finally she broke the kiss and stood staring at him breathlessly.

"What the fuck was that about Sango? Have you lost your ever loving mind?" He was scowling at her. "If Kagome had seen she-"

"Tell her. Tell her what I did so I can be done with all of you. Then I will have no reason to ever step foot in the village again. Not for Miroku, not for my children, not for Kagome, not for you, not for anyone."

"Sango. Don't do this." He stepped towards her. "This will all blow over, you have to give it time."

"I have given enough time. I am done giving time. I am ready to reclaim my name as a demon slayer. I'm going to do it without anyone's blessing, and I'm going to do it today." She walked to where the Hiraikotsu lay and picked it up. "It's a shame that I figure everything out now. I see now that it should have been me and you together. The both of us and our feisty natures… What fun we could have had in the dark InuYasha! You know… we _are_ all alone out here. Want to chance a secret romp in this very field? I could make it worth your while…" she said as she unbuttoned the toggle at her neck.

InuYasha closed his eyes and folded his arms into his sleeves. "I think you better go Sango."

She sighed, and then without another word she headed out into the other side of the forest, not stopping for anything.

* * *

Lyrics to _Runaway_ property of Damn Yankees

"She said I came to this place,

Full of dreams,

Young and innocent and only sixteen.

Now I wonder if it's too late to turn back.

So she runs, and she hides,

And she dries the tears from her eyes,

And the night goes on and on and on.

She's in the twilight zone

Yeah, you gotta run, run, runaway.

It's such a long way home

And it hurts so bad, you gotta run, run, runaway."

 

* furoshiki is kind of like a backpack, Sango wears a blue one sometimes when she's got her kimono on.

* onbuhimo is a type of baby sling that holds the child to your back. Kichirou is seen in it in the last manga where the twins are terrorizing InuYasha's ears and Miroku and Sango are hanging laundry on the line. It's just before InuYasha smells Kagome's scent coming from the well.


	3. Rock Bottom

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations****

* * *

Miroku walked back through the Forest of InuYasha, dazed and hurt and in complete shock. Sango, his beautiful bride, was willing to trade their sweet babies and their peaceful life just for the opportunity to go chasing down Naraku all over the wilds of Japan. She resented that her children had taken all of the excitement and adventure from her life. She resented that her grueling training to become a top notch demon slayer had seemingly ceased to be important to anyone but herself. He walked on numbly, his jangling staff dragging in the forest floor behind him, kicking up a small puff of dust every now and then.

His mind kept flashing to when they first married, and it was he and she who went from town to village exorcizing demons. InuYasha had taken her place when she became pregnant. As he walked he saw glimpses of their professional days and their passionate nights. She was happy then, with the ultimate enemy defeated and a chance to practice her art as well as love her husband at night. He stopped walking and stared at the ground, trapped within the wisp of a memory.

They were in a town they'd never been to before, and its name was unimportant. What was important was that they had come and dispelled a demon, and they'd been given sake, a hot meal, and a place to sleep for the night. They had retired early, and catnapped until well after the moon had risen, being sure that everyone was asleep. She had rolled over to him and whispered to see if he was awake. He had sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes, and then she had smiled and overtook him, kneeling in front of him and trailing her fingers from his lips, down the front of his chest, and then on to softly caress what she had dubbed his "granite". Unable to resist her strong warrior's hands, Miroku pulled her into his lap and covered her in tender kisses. He could smell the light scent of her passion as he kissed her throat, and she had yanked the little tuft of hair at the back of his head free from its binding. Her fingers wrapped themselves in his loose hair as he left a love bite on her neck. She softly hissed in ecstasy and forced his face up towards hers as she thrust her tongue into his eager and willing mouth. She had straddled his lap and he was desperately trying to peel the leather from her lean body. The inky purple room was lit only by the waxing moon's light as it refracted its way through the rice paper walls, and so he remembered clearly her fluid dark silhouette against bright and translucent gray. She forced him to lie back and removed only what she needed to; she loathed full nudity. Miroku didn't mind; he loved the feel of her flesh bearing down on him while still being able to touch the fine yokai hide her armor was made from. She had loved him hard that night, and she gasped and shivered and tried to keep as quiet as she could as they both came to their end. When they were finished, and as they were beginning to doze off again, she whispered, "I only want to be by your side always, no matter what."

His eyes began to tear up again, as he recalled that being their last affair on the road. She soon started showing signs of her pregnancy and that was when InuYasha had graciously taken her place. She seemed so excited about the twins, and so excited when she came pregnant again (Kirchirou's conception had also been a feverishly passionate night to remember), and up until only recently did she seem disinterested and mired in the drudgery of the same old shit syndrome. What was causing this change in her? What could have caused her to want to trade her life now for the life she had?

He saw her sweet face now in his mind's eye, saw her as she appeared on their wedding day. Her hair was piled into complicated knots on top of her head, skewered through with beautiful flowers attached to jeweled hair sticks that she borrowed from Rin. She was shimmering in the evening sunlight in a white silk kimono with a delicate white floral pattern that Kohaku had given her as a wedding present. Kaede had performed their ceremony, even though she practiced Shinto and he practiced Buddhist. Her lovely eyes, so full of love and joy that day, glistened with happy tears as she smiled and said "I will be by your side, always."

His staff fell suddenly from his hand and clattered to the ground as he suddenly went weak from misery. He fell to his knees sobbing. It didn't matter what caused this miserable tension between the two of them. He had ended their marriage in the open clearing, and for better or worse she was now on her own. He couldn't deny though that if she were to come up to him this very minute he would sweep her into his arms and do whatever it took to bring her back home and make her happy again. Even if he had to trade places with her he would have done it, though it was unheard of for a man to do woman's work solely, unless your name was Jakotsu, but he was fruitier than Miroku's plum tree.

Thoughts of his children quickly crowded his miserable mind. He could picture Izumi, the first twin, being quietly concerned and only asking once where Mama was and when she would be back. After that she would lie patiently, and probably fall asleep at her usual time. Shinju, the second twin, but definitely the boss, would be more vocal, practically demanding to know where she was and why someone hadn't gone to go get her because it was dark, and Mama always said not to go out in the dark by yourself. The same line of questions would repeat a few moments later, and she would probably stay up well past her bedtime, troubled and wanting some damn answers. Then there was Kichirou. The disruption of his routine was likely to make him cranky, and Miroku had a feeling that it was going to be a long night for all of them, and that this would be the first of many long nights for himself.

InuYasha was streaking down the trail back to the village when he heard Miroku's masculine bawling and he slowed to speak briefly to him.

"Miroku, don't worry. Sango's a strong girl; I'm sure she'll work through whatever it is that's bothering her and come back to you and the kids." He grabbed his shoulder as he knelt down beside him. "You've got to get yourself together before you see them, they need you to be strong. Come on, we'll stop at Kaede's get your face washed up and then you can go home to them, alright?"

He helped his aching friend to his feet and they trudged on together, Miroku thankful that even though Sango had left him, he was not going back into Edo alone. They stopped at Kaede's, who said she would pray for the safe and happy return of his beloved Sango, and then he practically crawled to his house. Kagome had taken the children to her home, where they were still under the pretense that this was all a great adventure, and that Mama and Papa were reenacting some historical scene from their past travels. This was fine for Miroku. InuYasha asked him if he should stay, and Miroku told him it made no difference either way. InuYasha decided he would go home and make sure Kagome wasn't ready to strangle anyone yet, and so Miroku was finally left to himself. He pulled out the kiseru and found all the tobacco was gone, so he went to the decoy rock bin and hauled out the sake and the two cups and some of the sacred incense with the calming powers.

He drank the sake from one of the cups at first, thinking she would return at any moment and pick up one for herself. After a while he drank that one too and then he abandoned them both for drinking it straight from the bottle. He had broken the sticky incense buds down into small pieces so that it was almost as finely shredded as his tobacco was and filled the kiseru's bowl as full as it would go. Mushin had told him this particular incense was okay to smoke if you needed to calm yourself and find peace within, and he definitely needed some peace right now.

He lit the pipe and drew in deeply, remembering to hold it for a count of at least five, as Mushin had said. As he exhaled, he felt the effect immediately. And what was even better was it appeared to burn slower, and so instead of the usual three puffs the bowl held, it looked like it would hold five puffs of the incense. He smoked the whole bowl in under two minutes, feeling comfortably numb to his emotional pain. He drank another whole bottle of sake as his dry mouth refused to be slaked, and finally after the moon had moved quite a ways, he stumbled drunkenly into his house. He saw Sango's kimono neatly folded where she slept, and he used it as a pillow. He cried himself to sleep in his cold and empty house, and overhead the stars spun on.

* * *

Shippo agreed to watch Miroku and Sango's children while InuYasha and Kagome stepped outside to discuss what had happened after they left. Kagome said she was sure the twins had heard Sango declare her hatred to Miroku for having made her a mother, but she tried to sing and tell nursery rhymes to cover up anything else they may have heard. They were nervous and worried when Kagome led them away, but the twins seemed to be satisfied when Kagome told then that often times when they were out on their adventures they would get separated, sometimes for days. She was keeping their adventure alive for them, and all she could do was hope they hadn't heard to much of what had been said, although the forest rang when Sango screamed "IT MATTERS TO ME!" at the top of her lungs, regarding her ability to wield her enormous boomerang.

Now Kagome sat nestled between InuYasha's legs as he kept his hands on her ever growing stomach, feeling of his pup moving inside her. It felt more and more like there was more than one inside, to which Kagome was now very nervous. She had counted on having Sango's help when the pup (or pups) was born, and it now appeared that Sango was not coming home for a while. She hoped it was all a misunderstanding in the heat of the moment, but when she had told InuYasha her feelings on the subject he had sighed heavily; not a good sign.

"I don't think she's coming back, Kagome." He struggled with how to tell her what Sango had done when they had been left in the clearing alone.

"Why do you say that?" Kagome asked sadly.

InuYasha began to fidget. "Well…"

"Well's a deep subject, how about just spitting it out Pops!" she said as she gently shook her stomach, giving a high pitched voice to her baby inside.

InuYasha decided playing along with this little game of hers might increase his chances of survival when he got to the part where Sango had planted a wet one on him, and so he said, "Alright son, I'll tell ya what happened!" He stroked and gently patted her taught belly. "After your Mama and cousins left, Sango said some really nasty things to poor Miroku. She told him she blamed him for having babies, because she couldn't train as she wanted with them around, and so she was very angry that her skills weren't so hot today. She blamed him for forcing her to settle down and raise a family, and said she wished that he had given every woman in Japan a child before giving her one."

"Oh no, poor Miroku," Kagome said as she placed her hand on top of InuYasha's. "His family is his life."

"It gets worse."

"It gets worse?"

"Yeah," he said as he embraced her and laid his head on her shoulder. "She told him she would gladly trade any and all of her children to be out chasing down Naraku again." He felt her jaw drop. "He was speechless for a moment, and then he stood up and ended their marriage right then and there. He told her to go off on her own without them if that was how she truly felt."

"Oh Kami!" She felt her heartbeat thudding as the knowledge of their divorce settled into her brain.

 _Just tell her the truth,_ he thought. "There's more, but I'm afraid to tell you."

"Why?" she asked quietly. "Surely she couldn't have said anything more horrible than that!"

"It wasn't what she said, it was what she did. I don't want you to be mad at me, because I was unwillingly involved." He moved her so he could look into her beautiful brown eyes. "Promise me you won't be mad at me."

"If you were unwillingly involved then I have no right to be angry with you." She was nervous.

He allowed her to settle back into his chest as they replaced their hands on Kagome's belly. "After Miroku left, I patted her shoulder, like this-" he demonstrated his chaste act, "and told her that I hoped everything worked out for them, and to try talking to Kaede because she helps us from time to time when we squabble… And then.. well, then she kissed me." His voice was shaking.

"So she kissed you, big deal, it's not like she was slobbering all over you!"

"Actually, she was."

Kagome's brow furrowed and she didn't say anything for a moment as she thought about this new turn of events. Finally she said, "Tell me how she kissed you."

"She grabbed my face and jerked me down to her. She pried my jaws open by squeezing them, and she kissed me with her tongue, the way you kiss me when I'm fucking the shit out of you." He could picture her rolling her eyes at his artful use of the Japanese language. But her silence worried him, so he resolved to just tell her all of it so it would be done with. "I tried to make her let me go, but she just squeezed harder, and I didn't want to punch her, because after Miroku ended their pairing, she was so pissed that she summoned up all that anger and she managed to fling Hiraikotsu to hit her mark. Finally she let me go, and she told me to tell you what she'd done that way everyone here would hate her and then she would have no reason to ever return."

Kagome was quiet a moment, digesting what she'd just been told. _Why did she feel the need to burn all her bridges here?_ she wondered to herself. "I'm not mad at you InuYasha. I appreciate your honesty. Jeez, what the hell has gotten into her?"

"I'm still not done."

She turned to face him. "Don't tell me she raped you, because I know you could have stopped that."

"No! Nothing like that!" He took a deep breath and gazed at the stars above. "Once I finally broke free from her I asked her what the fuck was going on, and she told me what I just told you, tell Kagome what happened so everyone hates me in Edo. Then I told her to let this all blow over and give things a chance to cool down. She said she was done giving up time and was going to reclaim her title as the best demon slayer around with or without anyone's blessing."

He took a deep breath because this was the part that had disturbed him more than the passionate and angry kiss they shared. "She said she was sorry to find out that it should have be me and her together because of our fiery natures, and that-" his mouth had gone suddenly dry, so he waited to saliva to return before continuing, "that we could have had such fun in the dark. And then… she began unbuttoning her tunic, saying that we were all alone in this clearing and that she would make it worth my time…" His breath was coming raggedly. He was terribly bothered by what she had said to him because he had never ever given Sango a thought in his mind about ever laying with her. He knew from the time she joined them that eventually she and Miroku would be together, even when he was not so certain of where his own allegiance fell.

"Sango…" Kagome said in a hurt voice.

"I closed my eyes and crossed my arms, and told her that she should go. And so she left in the opposite direction of Miroku. I came back down the path and found him on his knees crying. I helped him to Kaede's so he could wash his face before seeing his kids, because I didn't know at the time whether they were here or at home or what, and then I asked him if he wanted me to stay but he seemed like he wanted to be alone. I caught the smell of that incense he uses from time to time on the breeze, and the smell of that sake he's got hidden on the side of the house. I imagine he's pretty shitfaced by now."

"Well," Kagome began, "I'll allow him this night to sulk and be upset. But he's got to get straightened up because we can't keep his kids forever. And if Sango does come back I hope she's back to her old self. I don't want to have to purify her ass if she comes messing with you again."

InuYasha smiled. "You'd defend my honor like that?"

She began to get up so she could go to the bushes before going to bed. "I'd defend it, and bring then back some extra to add to it. Kami knows you can use some extra!" She smiled at him. He'd been so worried that he'd upset her when he hadn't done anything at all. It was sweet how much he thought of her feelings these days.

He helped her to get comfortable on their pallet and just before he drifted off, he whispered in her ear, "I'll love you always Kagome." Soon he was softly snoring, and she could feel his rhythmic breath on the back of her neck. She was restless, worrying about Sango and Miroku, hoping that they both would come to their senses and get back together. She knew there had to be a happy balance for them somewhere, they only needed to work together. She said a prayer for them both and then fell into a fitful sleep herself, dreaming of giving birth to a litter of pups that numbered in the teens, and Sango no where to be found to help her.

* * *

The rabbit was popping on the spit, and it smelled delicious. Sango had managed to kill it after the third throwing knife hit the fast little rabbit right in the back of the neck. She quickly skinned, gutted and spit it as her little fire grew into a larger one. The thrill of the hunt had made her feel so alive again! She had nearly forgotten about Miroku ending their union and disowning her from her children. Deep inside, Sango was crying, but she was a warrior, and often times warriors buried everything so they could function as killing machines. Part of her thought that maybe once she'd gotten back into tip-top condition she could go back and make amends, but part of her thought that by that time she might have steady work and she might not want to go back.

She sighed and ran her hand over her tired abdomen. What used to be a fairly defined set of muscles was now squishy and layered in pregnancy fat. Her once powerful arms jiggled at her triceps. Her strong shoulders were now mushy. Sango knew it might take months to get back what she had lost over the course of five years, but she was prepared to train out here in this mountainous prairie until her body was ready.

She took the rabbit from the fire and began to pick at the roasted meat, trying not to burn her fingers. Inevitably, her thoughts wandered back to her children whom Kagome had taken to spare them from her heated argument with their father. She hadn't even been given a chance to say goodbye to them. Her heart ached a little. They were innocent in all of this, and yet she knew she had hurt them unintentionally. Maybe she would go by Edo in a few days, just to let them know she was thinking about them.

She'd been a little hard on Miroku too, but she meant what she said: she would trade anything to be back on the trail of Naraku, fighting and doing her born profession: slaying demons.

She went back to the rabbit, pulling chunks of fresh meat from the bones and relishing that she was out in the wilderness again after such a long time. The sweet smell of the wildflowers on the wind, the sound of the crickets and frogs singing… it felt just like coming home.

After she finished her dinner she laid down beside the fire in the sweet smelling grass, feeling the familiar uneven, slightly bumpy lay of the land beneath her and the never ending sky above her. She fell asleep quickly, having been physically and mentally exhausted, and Sango slept her first night alone.

* * *

Lyrics to _Love of My Life_ property of Queen

Love of my life,  
You hurt me,  
You've broken my heart,  
Now you leave me

Love of my life can't you see?  
Bring it back, bring it back,  
Don't take it away from me,  
Because you don't know what it means to me

Love of my life,  
You hurt me,  
You've stolen my heart,  
Now you desert me

Love of my life can't you see?  
Bring it back, bring it back,  
Don't take it away from me,  
Because you don't know what it means to me


	4. Fool in the Rain

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations****

* * *

Lyrics to _Wherever I May Roam_ property of Metallica

And the earth becomes my throne  
I adapt to the unknown  
Under wandering stars I've grown  
By myself but not alone  
I ask no one

And my ties are severed clean  
Less I have the more I gain  
Off the beaten path I reign

Roamer, wanderer  
Nomad, vagabond  
Call me what you will

But I'll take my time anywhere  
I'm free to speak my mind anywhere  
and I'll redefine anywhere

Anywhere I roam  
Where I lay my head is home

* * *

Sango was about half way up the side of a sheer cliff. She climbed slowly and methodically, being sure of her grip and her step before leaving any current position. Her muscles, already sore from heaving Hiraikotsu so violently yesterday, were practically throbbing and screaming out in a chorus of pain. It was bittersweet though, she thought as she continued to climb, because the physical pain was much more bearable than her emotional pain, and so she had meant for the physical pain to be so overpowering and accepted it stoically.

This was her second week away from Miroku. Her body was beginning to harden back up. Her strenuous workouts and rigorous pace helped to see that she was improving. Every minute of everyday was now spent optimizing her physical improvement. Today, she had planned to climb to the top of the cliff, rest a bit, and then run back down to the craggy valley she had made camp in. She had decided to train non-stop now until she was back in top condition. Grueling as it was, she didn't mind. She'd resolved in her mind that she absolutely had to go back to the village, to her home in Edo, and make amends with her now estranged husband once she'd gotten her slayer's finely honed body back. Despite her words in the clearing all those days before, she desperately loved him, and her children, who she could never hand over. She simply would have to find a way to live as a warrior _and_ as a wife and mother.

She reached the top of the cliff face, and pulling herself up to rest on her stomach, Sango simply laid and sucked wind for a moment. She was exhausted from her strenuous workout: she began with some yoga poses that Miroku had taught her (and later exploited in their post marital life) and then hunted down another rabbit, this time only spending two of her knives. She had followed that up with a nice jog to the cliff face, which was about two miles, and now she laid in the dust at the top of the rock wall, breathing the air that seemed cooler and alive with electricity as she watched the first streaks of lightning belonging to a summer storm on the horizon.

She sat up, every muscle crying for mercy, every joint miserably wailing in her tired body. Her blood thrummed in her veins, full of energy, regardless of how the flesh might feel. She stood on weary legs and began to focus herself. Soon the tremors in her body stopped and she stood still as a stone. With one fluid motion she whipped the Hiraikotsu from her shoulder and sent it out across the valley without so much as even a grunt. It flew much further today that when she first hurled it two weeks ago. She was throwing it much easier now, but it still took tremendous effort. The boomerang spun off about two hundred yards away from her. She was hoping today it would hit the maple tree, but it was still shy about 75 yards. It came back to her and she caught it neatly. "It's gonna be a slow process," she said out loud to no one. She felt her legs begin to destabilize again, and so she decided to err on the side of caution and rest a bit more before running down the steep hill side, lying back into the grassy area where the incline ended in the dusty plateau. Eventually her breath evened, and soon she was fast asleep.

When Sango awoke, she was not anywhere near the cliff top, or her camp, or anywhere near where she had been training. She awoke in a shell of a hut, lying on top of a furry pelt of some kind, and smelling stew on the boil. Her stomach rumbled, and her nerves were in high gear, pumping the adrenaline she desperately sought through her body. It gave her energy and some slight pain relief, although it could never completely dull the excruciating and pounding ache she now felt in every minute part of her being. She began to look around herself. Seeing nothing but a fire and a stew pot, she crouched on the balls of her feet, readying herself to sprint out of this dilapidated shed and get back to her camp.

Just then a dirty and weary looking man stepped through the doorway, carrying a bundle of bloomless flower stalks. He saw Sango was ready to pounce and he dropped the basket, waving his hands in front of him and begging for mercy. "Please slayer! Please don't hurt me! Please don't!" He shut his eyes from her, obviously very afraid of Sango and her huge weapon, regardless of how well she felt she could use it.

Sango relaxed her position, but did not remove her eyes from him. "Where am I?" she asked gruffly.

"Forgive me slayer, but I am nearly deaf and you will have to speak louder than that if I am to answer you properly." He stood frozen in fear, just as he looked when he dropped the basket at his feet. Sango repeated herself, louder and more clearly.

"You are at my home, slayer. My brother and I are but poor farmers." The man was shaken, and he was frightened at the wild look in her eyes.

"Why have you brought me here?" she practically yelled.

The man was still cowering in the far corner. "My brother and I went to see if we could find a vantage spot to overlook our field, as it's truly beautiful at this time of the season. We found the steep hill, and saw you had collapsed in the grass there. We feared you were hurt and brought you back here, where we have medicine to treat your pains."

She wondered what medicine they had put into her as she slept, and she immediately began to look for gashes, as Kagome had told her that in her time there was injectable medicine, but explained than any cut could take medicine directly into the blood stream.

"Your medicine doesn't work!" she yelled. "I am still in a lot of pain!"

The dirty man laughed. "You haven't taken it yet, slayer! You were fast asleep remember?" Sango finally relaxed into a sitting position, feeling that this deaf and dirty hump of a farmer meant her no harm. He finally felt able to move again, seeing how she had abandoned her attack stance. "Would you like some stew? You should eat before taking the medicine, or your stomach will be upset." Sango nodded, asking him what his name was.

"My name is Jiro. We came from the Continent last spring to bring our medicine plant here to your beautiful land." He stirred the thick stew that bubbled in the cauldron over the fire pit. He scooped out a bowl for both of them and handed the steaming mess over to Sango. It was not the best she'd ever had, but it was good and warm, and she was certainly hungry.

She learned from Jiro that the medicine came from the seed pods that the flowers left behind, which was why he brought a basket of them inside, so he could work on them before bed, and out of the rain that would surely be coming soon. "We take the sticky part from the pod and let it dry, and form it into little pebbles, like this one," he showed her the one he had picked out for her in his palm. "Then you can either eat it like this or you can smoke it, either way the outcome is the same. To smoke it is instantaneous, and it is stronger when it first takes effect. To eat it takes longer and is milder relief but it lasts longer."

Just then Haru came in with another bundle of pods. He was strong, straight, deeply tanned and had blue eyes, like Miroku's. The thought of her husband made her ache even worse than she already did. Suddenly she wasn't sure she wanted to be relieved of that intense physical pain that now came in waves, keeping time with her heartbeat. It kept her mind from wandering too far.

The man set his heavy load down before Jiro and turned to look at her. "Oh good you're awake! Sorry you had to eat our lousy cooking," he said as he watched the steam rise from her bowl. "Mother never had time to really teach us how to make it the way she does."

"What are you saying Haru? I can't hear you!"

Haru rolled his eyes and huffed. "I said your cooking is shitty!" he yelled, inches from Jiro's ear.

Jiro laughed and said, "You've got me there!" and he went back to cheerfully scoring the skin of the seed pods. Sango watched as the almond colored liquid welled up around the cuts and looked about to drip, and then how Jiro scraped it off just in time into a pot in his lap.

"I see you've met Jiro and his deaf ears. My name is Haru. May I ask your name, slayer? Or do you rather we just call you slayer?" She considered this for a moment. She felt a strange attraction to this one, even though he was filthier than the other brother, and she was a little afraid to reveal too much of herself too quickly.

"Call me slayer for now, good farmer Haru. I appreciate your rescue attempt, but really, I must get back to my camp." She set her emptied bowl on the floor of the shack and stood.

"But wait, we haven't given you our medicine yet!" Jiro said. "Please slayer! You must take it with you, it will relieve your pain!"

Sango thought about this for a moment. She knew after today's rigorous training that she would have problems sleeping, waking occasionally from agonizing muscle cramps in the night, and she would be ill rested for tomorrow's training.

"Give it to me and I will eat it when I get to where I am going." She took the little ball from Jiro's palm and pocketed it in one of her secret hiding places within her uniform. "Thank you both for your kindness and generosity today. I'm sure we'll meet again."

With that she exited the hut into a surreal scene. She was surrounded by thousands of vermilion colored flowers, all with black centers, waving frantically against a dark gray sky that was streaked with lightning. The vivid bold red of the blooms seemed to shout against the purple and gray thunderheads in the distance, and the leaves that held the blooms up were a dull dusky green in comparison. Sango nearly thought about staying, if only to gaze upon these plants that she had never seen before, but decided that being the only woman between two strange men in an impending rain storm was just a risk she couldn't afford right now.

The little plot of flowers was on the top of a grassy hill on another part of the mountain range. As she looked out over the craggy slope of the land, she could just make out where her camp was, and so she fled in that direction despite the swollen and angry look of the clouds, desperate to let loose of their rain. Looked like she was going to get that run she'd planned in after all.

In the hut behind her, Jiro whispered to Haru, "Looks like we have our first customer."

"Come on, Koga," Hakkaku complained. "Can't we try to make it back to the den before the storm? I don't want to have to spend another night in another dirty cave!"

Koga shook his head as he sat down on a log inside this newest of accommodations. He hated rain. He hated getting wet more than anything in the world. Even InuYasha could agree with him on this, and they were practically mortal enemies. His companions, Ginta and Hakakku, didn't seem to mind. But the good thing for Koga was that he was the boss here, and so what he said was what would be done.

"There's no way I'm going to be caught in that. It's gonna rain for two whole days probably." He watched sky darken over the course of the day, marveling at the barbaric beauty of the building storm. The deep violet and slate colored clouds formed huge and towering thunderheads that were full of hot white lightning and rumbling thunder. The storm itself did not bother Koga, only the water part of it. "If you want something to do, go kill something to eat and get some firewood in here. It's going to be at least two days before we're leaving."

The two wolf demons took the pack of wolves and left Koga to his thoughts as they went out in search of food and something dry that would burn. Having been on the run across the country, they were making their way back to their den, mainly to check on the women, but also because Koga considered going home a vacation. He was tired. He'd been patrolling out near Kagome's village, still protecting her, even though she was soundly mated to that mutt InuYasha, and would be bearing his pup sometime within the next two or three months. He still thought of her as _his_ mate, and still treated her as such. He sighed as he stared out the mouth of the cave. He was so completely lonely and tired of chasing monsters in the dark to protect a woman he knew didn't feel the same way about him. Although she'd be happy for him if he found a new mate, he just couldn't bring himself to break his promise to her to protect her, and/or find someone else to love. If he broke his promise to her and found someone he loved, she would be at the mercy of InuYasha's less than professional protection. If he kept his promise and protected her always, he would be lonely until the end of his days. It was a dead end either way he turned.

Suddenly there came a familiar scent on the wind that Koga couldn't place. He knew it was someone he knew, but he couldn't remember from where. He kept his nose to the gusting wind, walking to the mouth of the cave as the first raindrops began to fall fat and furiously to the ground. He backed away, still sniffing the air as the scent grew stronger. It was coming faster, and smelled like whoever it was intended on getting out of the rain as well, because it was heading right for him.

Sango came running at full speed into the cavern, almost knocking Koga into the darkness behind him. She skidded to a stop, stirring up the dust and gasping for breath.

"Koga!" she huffed. "What are you doing out here?"

Koga relaxed once he saw it was Kagome's friend. "I should ask you the same, don't you have kids you should be attending to?"

After nearly two weeks of trying really hard not to think of her husband and children, she was forced to deal with reality that she was on her own, exiled from her home and family, all because she was bored and unhappy with herself. "Not right now, maybe we can talk later." She laid Hiraikotsu on the ground and rubbed at her temples. She was always sensitive to change in pressure during storms and she now had a good headache going, in addition to her screaming flesh.

Thunder crashed outside the cave as the rain began to really let loose. Ginta and Hakkaku with the wolves behind them came sprinting in just as the rain began to come down in buckets. They had brought enough firewood to take them through for three days, just in case, and the wolves had carried in two fresh boars, one not quite dead, which Koga fixed with a quick claw, slicing its throat open. "These are for us," Koga said to the wolves, "you guys have to get your own okay?" The pack nodded back, and then they were out again, despite the rain.

"Sango, what are you doing here?" Hakkaku asked in his gravelly, nasally voice. "Why aren't you home with your family?"

She sighed. "It's such a long story." She grabbed some wood from the piles they'd brought in and began to make their fire. No one said anything for a few moments, waiting to see if she would begin her story on her own.

Ginta knelt beside her after she got the fire started. "We appear to have plenty of time, Sango. What troubles are at your house?"

She stared into the fire, hearing every horrible word that she excreted to her now former husband; saw what she did to the obnoxious yet lovable InuBaka… Tears began to streak silently down her dirty face as she struggled to maintain her composure. Ginta awkwardly put his arm around her shoulders, much to Koga and Hakkaku's surprise.

"Ginta, unhand the monk's mate this instant!" Koga roared as he readied himself to fight him off of her, should he not do as he was told.

"Koga stop!" Sango shouted. "I'm not…" She choked on his name. She couldn't say his name or she was going to lose it completely. "I'm no man's mate now."

Ginta released her, because he was ordered to do so, but not because he wanted to. He felt she needed some kind of comfort. After all, she was indeed in pain, as evidenced by her constant wincing every time she moved, as well as the rubbing at her temples when she was otherwise still. His wide eyes looked to Koga. Something was very wrong then.

Koga spoke. "For now, we are all stuck in this cave until that rain ends. You are welcome to share in our meal with us. Maybe after we've eaten you'll feel better Sango. Then maybe you can tell us your tale."

"Yeah, maybe." She walked to the mouth of their temporary residence, watching the rain pour down. It caused her to think of the first time she and Miroku had gone out together to do an exorcism. That day had been a lot like this one, beautiful and sunny that morning, but by noon rain was gushing from the sky. When they got to the nearest village and took shelter in the inn, the rain stopped. After they'd dried out a bit, they intended to go out and see where the demonic presence was, but as soon as they stepped outside, it began to rain once more. They figured it would stop again after a few moments, and so they walked for twenty minutes in the pouring rain, only to have to go back to the inn and dry out. They attempted to leave once more when the rain stopped for a second time, only to return soaked to the bone again. Having given up, they ended up paying the innkeeper to leave the entire place to them for the night. They started in the hot bath, washing each other down as they warmed their damp bodies in the hot water. It was one of the few times they'd made love completely naked. From there they found their way to their rented bed, which was plush and soft. Miroku had given her a massage that night, and he didn't neglect any surface on her, not even the internal ones. She considered herself to be the alpha in their sexual relationship, though most would assume it was the lecher. That entire night she let him be the aggressor. He liked to twist her flexible body into interesting positions, taking great care not to hurt her. The inn was quiet that night, except for the sound of their desire and the pouring rain, rain that sounded a lot like this. She closed her eyes and sighed, causing the memory to dissipate.

Her stomach growled as the spitted boar began to roast, filling the cave with a delectable smell. Sango remembered the little pill that the deaf farmer had given her, and now took it out of its hiding place to examine it. It was brown and felt gritty in her hand. It was about the size of a pea, and she regarded it carefully in the firelight.

"Koga," she said, "I'm going to take this medicine, but I don't know what it will do to me. Will you promise me a swift death if I turn on you?"

Koga looked at her across the fire. "What are you doing taking medicine from strangers? And where did you find it anyway?"

"I fell asleep earlier, and these farmers who grow the plant that it comes from thought I had collapsed. At the time I had been out training and I was just so tired…" She shook her head, "Anyway, when I woke up, they saw that I was in great pain, and they were going to let me have some of their medicine. I have to say that I am indeed in very great pain still."

Ginta said softly, "I'll watch over you if you want to take it. I hope it works for you, you do seem to be quite uncomfortable."

Hakkaku looked as his pack mate. "You feeling alright? You got a thing for her or something?" he whispered low enough for only him to hear.

"What's it to you?" he growled back.

"Sorry!" he said and moved over to sit with the wolves, who had come back soaked and stinking up the cave, but they were full, and so they slept.

Sango knelt before the fire, and said, "Well, here goes nothing," and popped the pill in and began to chew. It was insane how bitter it was, and she nearly gagged on it, but she got it down, and she went to the mouth of the cave, cupped her hands and filled them with rainwater. She swished it around in her mouth spitting it far out from the cave, and then repeated this until she felt the taste was finally gone. She returned to the fire and waited for it to take effect.

"How do you feel?" Ginta asked her in his soft and gentle voice.

Sango inclined her head, took stock of herself, and said, "Not any different yet. Maybe it takes a little bit to kick in." They all sat watching her, as if they expected her to suddenly transform into something they'd never seen before. "Will ya quit staring at me!" she yelled. All their eyes diverted from her. Ginta told them dinner was ready anyhow.

As they ate, she recounted what happened in the clearing, and when she was done, she had finished with her piece of meat. She took a flaming stick with her as she ventured into the back of the cave, which was cooler and drier back here. She saw that it was a multichambered cavern, quite a nice size, and she found a cozy little nook to do her business in. She told the others when she returned of the rooms further in.

"I think I'll sleep back there tonight, in case I do any screaming in my sleep." She did feel a little better, having eaten and finally relieved herself. "I don't want to attract any unnecessary attention from anything outside, you know."

"Sango, how am I supposed to watch over you if you're back there?" Ginta asked in a panicked tone. Hakkaku and Koga were watching him with wary eyes. He certainly seemed jumpy tonight.

"Easy, you'll come with me." She said it like it was the most natural thing in the world to do, like breathing. "Come on, we'll make a tiny little fire, just enough so you can see me, and then when I wake up in the morning we'll come back out here." Seemed simple enough right? Koga supressed a grin, knowing about Ginta's crush on Sango. _This could be interesting_ he thought to himself.

Ginta's mouth watered. Alone? With Sango? In the dark? Oh boy, he was never going to hear the end of it if he managed anything with her. Of course he was likely to suffer the same fate if he didn't manage anything with her as well. Maybe he could just check on her from time to time? _Nope, same thing will happen._ How about ask Koga to do it, he's totally committed to Kagome. _Nope, they'll call you out on that too. Best to just go and live with it._

He swallowed hard, and then found the courage to bring some firewood as she led the way back into the darkness with her little flaming stick. He followed behind her with his head held high, and a look of honorable duty on his face as he passed Koga and Hakkaku. He made a promise and he intended to keep it.

Koga would have understood, and he would have been proud.

* * *

He lurched awake sometime after midday. His head was absolutely pounding, and when he looked out the door of his house to see three empty sake bottles in the yard he knew why. Kami. He hobbled stiffly out the door to go take a piss. It was then that he remembered why there were three bottles of sake in the yard to start with. "Damn it, Sango," he whispered.

He stopped at the decoy rock bin and pulled out another bottle of sake and a chunk of the incense and went in the house to smoke it. He didn't need anyone watching him drown himself out in the yard. Looked like it was going to rain any minute anyway, and he didn't need to pass out under the plum tree and end up sick in his lungs from being out in the damp air.

After he'd smoked he mellowed considerably, and he felt almost insatiably hungry. He grabbed all the ripe plums off the tree and brought them in, just as he saw InuYasha coming up the hill.

"Miroku, nice of you to join the living, if only for a moment." He was carrying a bento box. "Kaede sent you some food."

"How kind of her. You must thank her for me; I'm in no shape to thank her myself."

"Damn Miroku, you fucking reek! What are doing in here, drinking yourself into oblivion?" InuYasha had pulled his sleeve over his sensitive nose. "You shouldn't be smoking that green shit either. Kagome says in her time it's illegal, and they call it pot."

"Pot?" he asked as opened the box InuYasha had brought him.

"Yeah because it makes your head as empty as a new pot! But in your case your pot's full of sake!"

The box had some sashimi, a little bit of roasted chicken and some vegetables. He turned and walked into the house, InuYasha following behind him. The scene was saddening. Sango's kimono was wadded and damp looking from where Miroku slept crying and then drooling into it every night since she'd gone. The fire pit looked cold and dirty, Miroku's staff, which usually held a place of reference on a hook on the wall was thrown aimlessly and it was lying across the middle of the floor. The entire house smelled so badly of pot smoke that InuYasha knew he wouldn't be able to stay inside for long.

"Here," he said as he handed Miroku his tobacco pouch. "Quit smoking that green shit, I'll get more tobacco today. Do you need anything while I'm out?"

Miroku looked up from his meal. "If you see her, tell her to come home."

"Keh," he said. "If I see her, I'm gonna tell her to come whip your ass for drinking all this sake. You know she will too, that's her stash you're dipping into!" He was trying to hold his breath as much as he could, but he said, "Sorry Miroku, I gotta get out of here. Your house fucking stinks."

"It's alright InuYasha," he called. "I know you meant that in the nicest way possible!"

"Get the fuck out of the sake bottle and come get your kids you pervert!" InuYasha called back.

"I love you too honey!" he teased.

Not long after InuYasha left, the sky let loose and the rain began to fall. Miroku's mind was swept along the same path of memory that Sango's went on, and he chugged a little more at the bottle, finally emptying it After filling his gut, he went out in the rain and grabbed another bottle of sake. He only had six bottles left. Two days supply if he wasn't greedy about it. Maybe if he didn't smoke "that green shit" he'd have more. It gave him the most terrible dry mouth. He sat down and built a tired little fire.

Two weeks. Two fucking weeks without a word from her. It was all his fault too. He told her it was over and now look at him, the hero monk spent everyday drinking until he passed out. He was hurting so bad inside… He hadn't seen his children since the day after their mother left him because Kagome didn't have the heart to return them to him after seeing him hungover and puking his guts up under his plum tree. So about once every three days Kaede sent him some food, and InuYasha came and checked up on him occasionally, usually giving him shit about the drinking and to tell him to quit smoking "that green shit" and to come get his kids, blah blah blah. Kagome had told him she couldn't let the children see him this way, that it would hurt them just as bad as Sango had. She said they needed to be with him so the whole family could move on together, but so far Miroku just could not pull even himself together, let alone two mischievous four year olds and a cranky two year old. He felt he could barely even breathe most days. It was like she had cut his heart out of his chest and ran off with it, and he was slowly dying from the inside out.

The sound of the rain refused to let his memory of that rainy day in that unknown village die until finally he finished that second bottle and passed out in the corner of his stinking house, finally immune to the memories that kept haunting him while he was awake. Finally able to get her out of his mind. Finally at peace


	5. Domino

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations****

* * *

Lyrics to _Damn Yankees_ property of the Damn Yankees (When you read 'Yankee' think of the Japanese word Yankee; a bad girl or boy.)

Hey brother  
Ready for another  
Dose of my Yankee Pride  
In the jungle  
Ya just might stumble  
Onto something that you never tried

**Skip to the end if you don't like lemons!**

* * *

Sango was in mid step when all at once it hit. That pill she took kicked in, and boy did it kick in. The first thing she noticed was that all of her pain said sayonara. Packed its shit up and went hustling on down the dusty trail with a quickness.

"Sango, you okay?" Ginta was fanning the flames on the kindling, getting ready to start layering the wood on.

"Wow, that stuff works wonders!" She did a back walkover to demonstrate. Ginta felt his pulse quicken. Her fluid motion had set him on fire inside. And like it or not, he was going to have to stay right where he was to keep her from seeing that his loincloth seemed to be sticking out a little further than usual.

Completely satisfied with the result of the strange medicine, she set about getting herself ready to lie down and sleep. She liked to stretch at the end of everyday with some more of the yoga poses, and since she was now completely pain free, she did just that.

Ginta, now completely lost in watching her bend and contort her body, could only hope that she didn't need him to actually do anything. He would be embarrassed as hell to have to stand up with a tent in his lap. He recalled that she was much harder and much leaner looking before her children were born, but he rather liked this version better, thinking that her hard body would be very uncomfortable to snuggle with. This softer body she had now was much better geared for that, and soon he was fantasizing of possibly taking her in the dark and finding out just how snuggly (or not) she really was.

When she'd finished her poses, she felt absolutely wonderful! All that worry about whether or not she was going to be able to use her weapon again seemed long ago and far away, and she accepted freely that her marriage was over. It was okay, and she was okay, and the world in general was okay too.

Suddenly round two of the pill kicked in. Since before leaving her family in the little clearing, she had been craving excitement and adventure, that feeling that you can't pinpoint in the heat of battle. Now she seemed to be filled with it. Overflowing in fact. She had all of this powerful energy trapped inside her body and now no way to expend it. She was not going to run out in the rain, that much was certain. But being stuck in this cave had its advantages, like a certain helpful young wolf demon who no doubt would be willing to help a sick old mother such as herself. The euphoria that welled inside of her had accepted that she was no longer any man's bride, and so now the overwhelming lust in the pit of her stomach demanded to be fed with passion, and so she turned to Ginta.

"Ginta. I need you to do me a favor." She stepped back into her alpha boots very well. She eyed him fiercely on the opposite side of the fire. She was raging with lust inside, and she already decided that if he said no she was going to make him do it anyway.

Ginta was crouched by the fire, shaking with desire himself. He could smell the sudden change in her scent, and he was praying that whatever she asked him to do would be worth revealing the little secret of his now raging hard on. He had seen her in the hot springs before, he had thought of her at night sometimes before he went to sleep, hoping to dream about being with her. Now here they were, just the two of them in the back of this huge cavern, alone. And her scent was hot. And she was asking him to do her a favor. "Whatever you ask, Sango."

"Come to me," she said as she began pulling off the elbow cops. When he stood she could clearly see why he'd remained crouched behind the fire as long as he had. "That's a good start Ginta." He was no longer ashamed of himself and walked to her freely. "Have you ever been with a woman before?" she asked him as she took his hand put it on her breast.

"No."

"Would you like to be with me?"

"Kami, yes," he breathed.

"You must do exactly what I say when I say. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes." He was shaking with nerves so bad his teeth chattered.

"Then come to me, get my armor off, but leave the hide on my body. I will reward you soundly." He needed to hurry; she was nearly ready to shake apart herself. The need in her stomach was so intense, she was afraid she was going to rape him anyway.

Ginta wasted no time in pulling everything that wasn't directly next to her skin off of her. He piled it loosely in the corner and went to his knees before her, meaning to pull her boots off, but she stopped him. "Uh-uh, those stay on. Stand up." He stood immediately and she rewarded him with a tantalizing kiss. She pulled back from him though he wanted more. She remembered how she liked bossing Miroku around like this, and instead of it making her sad or angry, it only fueled her insatiable fire.

"You see the ties in the front and back?" she pointed to just below her navel and on the back of her hip. "Untie them and place that with the armor. Do it quickly and I shall reward you again."

Ginta's mind was racing. He didn't know what was in that medicine but he was sure going to have to keep her pumped full of it. His fingers fumbled once with the lacing in the back, but once he had them all undone, a little piece of the uniform was removed, leaving bare her most private of areas.

"Very good Ginta. Now then, since you've been so kind and generous with yourself, what is that you want from me?" He was on one knee before her, and she placed her booted foot on his thigh. "What command is it that I should follow?"

His eyes were wide with surprise as master became slave, and after only a moment, he said in a firm voice, "Bare your breasts."

She smiled and removed her foot from his leg. He played her little game well. He commanded her, not asked her or acted uncertainly or indecisively, but had calmly commanded her in his gentle voice. It made her ache for him that much more. She undid what seemed like twenty fastenings in order to completely undo the skin tight tunic she wore. Finally she undid the last one and flung it open for him to see. There hung her breasts, still large and fairly firm despite having fed three children with them. Her abdominal muscles had indeed softened some, as Ginta had hoped. She might be snuggly after all.

"What do you wish of me now?" she said in a sweet voice.

Ginta was covered in a light sweat. It seemed he was having an equally rough time restraining himself as well. "Turn around," he growled, sensing that was what she wanted from him. He noticed her scent changed again. It was hotter than before, and he knew it was now or never.

She did as he asked, and he came up behind her, taking a breast in each hand. He squeezed and massaged and kneaded them until her nipples were hard like the little pill she had taken earlier that evening, and then he pinched them. She hissed in the darkness with delight. He covered her neck in wet kisses, kissing the backs of her earlobes occasionally. Sango thought for someone that knew nothing of sex that he was doing rather well his first time out. Maybe it was a demon thing. She felt his left hand let go of the breast and reach down to touch what she called her lotus. He barely put two fingers inside of her, just enough to agonize what she called her dew drop. It was swollen and tender and she moaned with pleasure when he touched her there. She was upset when he had stopped, but was willing to do whatever he commanded.

"Untie me."

She knew what he meant without clarification. She knelt and untied the loincloth from his waist and let it drop to the ground. His manhood was quite adequate for her. Average in length, but certainly thick enough to keep her satisfied. She looked up at him awaiting his next command, but what he did was give the reins back to her.

"It is your move Sango. Command me as you wish." He was smiling at her.

The corners of her mouth turned upward slightly, then she narrowed her gaze and snarled, "Lie on your back, boy." Ginta did as he was told, and she promptly stood over him. He took her in; her yokai hide tunic flung wide open exposing her milky white globes with the petal pink nipples that stood fully erect, her tight hide pants with the little panel missing that left her lotus in the open, exuding a scent that, to Ginta's sensitive canine nose, was undescribably hot and spicy. He saw the firelight reflecting and bouncing off of her leather boots. "Listen well." She was glaring at him. "You will want to come. You must restrain yourself. You cannot come before me. I am your alpha and you will please me before yourself. Do you understand?" She was shaking, the thought of only being only a few feet away from being satisfied of the lust in her now pain free body.

"Yes, my alpha."

"If you come before me I will kill you." This was not a threat, for they both knew she could easily do it.

"And die happy by your hand for disobeying you."

"Good boy Ginta." She smiled at him and then straddled him, sliding herself slowly down on top of his rock hard pillar. He gasped quietly and she shut him up with a deep kiss, one where she bit softly and playfully at his bottom lip.

"Please," he begged almost silently. "Please, I can't control myself if you do that, alpha."

She considered this and stopped all of her efforts. After a moment he seemed to have himself under control. "You are young, boy. Is it possible that you can go more than once?"

"I will do my job until you do not need me, no matter how many times."

She got up and turned so that she faced away from him this time, allowing Ginta to watch his piston slide in and out of her. She began to ride him, slowly at first to get a rhythm going. They both were nearly in convulsions. Sango was shaking because of the desperate need that had filled her belly, and Ginta was shaking with the nerves of losing his virginity to an old pro. But once they got their timing in sync, Sango took off on him, desperately wanting to be satisfied before he was overcome completely.

"My alpha, I am nearly ready!" he was gasping under her, and shaking harder than ever. She hopped up in one stroke, had moved her lotus to his face, and wrapped her lips around his rock hard erection all in one motion. Ginta licked and sucked at the juices he helped stir up inside of her, the mingling of their scents driving him crazy. With a ragged deep breath, he nearly roared as he exploded into her mouth. He heard her sucking and swallowing and almost gagging at one point because it felt like so much of it was coming out of him. He'd never managed to get that much when he was by himself in the forest, and could only credit Sango's professionalism for the gallons he felt he was spewing down the back of her eager throat. Finally she had sucked it all up, and looked over her shoulder at her gentle little male concubine. She saw the grin on his face and the fire in his eyes and knew he'd be ready again in just a moment.

She thought she would help him get back on the right track by playing with her dew drop in a place where he could see her doing it, but then she remembered how wolves and dogs alike reacted to the sense of smell, recalling how InuYasha always knew when she'd been with Miroku because of the scent she carried within her from their coupling.

Thankfully she didn't have to think too much about it, because Ginta had pushed her gently off of him, rolled to his knees and now laid Sango on her back. "My alpha, forgive me for being weak. Let me please you."

He remembered how she shuddered when he had his fingers on that little button of silk at the top of her split. He threw her legs over his shoulders and spread her lotus flower open. He saw now the very spot, and he attacked it gently with his tongue, gently running the front of his teeth along the top of it, feeling her writhe beneath him. She was panting, and she had reached down and sunk her fingers into his gray and black hair.

"Stick your fingers inside me while you do that!" she gasped.

Ginta complied, being careful not to scratch the soft flesh there with his claws. As he suckled at her dew drop, he thrust his index and middle fingers into her, stirring her excited scent again into his nose. He felt himself become needful again of her, but he was in better control this time, having already released himself once. He felt the silky pink flesh tighten around his fingers as she clenched down on him, spazing in satisfaction as he gently bit down on the dew drop with his sharp teeth. She was moaning quite loudly now, saying "Don't stop! Don't stop!"

He nibbled gently with his teeth and just as he was thinking of switching to some other technique there, she cried out with her orgasm, thrashing against him, but holding him fast to her lotus with her hand that was wound up in his hair. When she finally released him, he had licked her clean, and she said to him, "Kneel beside me."

Ginta clamored to get to his knees. She rolled to her side where she took his iron in her hands. She looked up at him and smiled. "You have been a good lover to me this night. You and I shall come together again."

Ginta, whose passion had been fulfilled, looked at her with gratitude. "Thank you Sango. I always wanted it to be you." His words of sincerity undid her, and she got on top of him again. This time she faced him, as she had the first time when he almost lost control. She bounced up and down easily now that the pain in her body was gone, and her heaving chest bounced right in Ginta's face. He grabbed one of her breasts in his hand and sucked delicately at her nipple as she rode and ground against him, very close coming a second time. This time, they seemed to respond to each other, and adjusted themselves so that they came at the same time, and Sango took it all inside her, hoping that she would not regret it later.

The fire in her belly was satisfied for the moment, and Ginta was completely spent now. She suggested that since he had less clothing to worry about that he go to the mouth of the cave and wet a rag for her so she could wash up. "And then we will sleep. I will play with your hair and you will sleep like you've never done it before."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"Because the first time you love someone this way it's the only thing that helps to savor the moment. Your body and your mind want to remember it forever, and so to seal it in your memory you will fall asleep with me when you come back."

He practically ran to where the unrelenting storm poured down, clutching a rag she had given him from one of her hidden pockets. Koga and Hakkaku were waiting with broad smiles and eager noses.

"Ginta, did you really do it?" Hakkaku asked him as he soaked the rag Sango had given him. "We thought something was going on back there when we heard her tell you not to stop!"

"I must say you are quite the lucky one of the three of us," Koga said. "The first of us to get the woman he loves." In the back of his mind he was insanely jealous, knowing Kagome would never love him the way he loved her, and such a special moment woudl not be shared between him and the woman he loved.

"What's her scent like?" Hakkaku asked. Ginta couldn't speak he was smiling so hard and blushing so deeply. He held out the fingers that had been inside of her, and the whole pack came to smell of it. Koga inhaled it deeply and said, "She's divine, go back to her I know she's waiting for you."

"Hey Ginta!" Hakkaku was practically bouncing up and down. "Congratulations buddy!"

"Thank you," he said in a croaky, somehow deeper voice. He almost swaggered as walked back to where Sango lay waiting for him to clean her up so they could sleep, or at least try to, he thought he might have one more round left in him.

"Hakkaku," Koga said as he slumped off to lie down by the fire and get some rest himself, "our little Ginta has grown up."

Ginta went back to their little cave room where they both decided the third time was a charm, and then afterward he cleaned Sango up as best he could with the freezing cold wet cloth. After they were both wiped down and redressed, Sango settled into Ginta's arms, where he found her to be quite snuggly, and they both fell fast asleep quickly.

And beyond the rain, beyond the clouds, the stars spun on.

* * *

Okay, this was an important chapter because obviously the drug Sango took was pure opium. It is an incredible pain reliever. If you've ever taken percosets or even Tylenol 3's you've taken some form of opium. However, in its pure form, like Sango took it, it's also an incredible aphrodisiac. We'll just have to see how that aspect complicates things now that she's evidently taken Ginta for herself. So, if you missed the lemon, Sango basically feels the pain relief from the opium medicine, and then shortly thereafter feels the aphrodisiac kick in, and the only thing available to satisfy her is Ginta, who willingly participates in her dominatrix style game.

And three cheers for Ginta! This nice guy finished first tonight, way to go buddy! Congratulations! ~love, SJ


	6. Trouble Walkin'

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations****

* * *

Lyrics to _What it Takes_ property of Aerosmith

When you don't look back I guess the feelings start to fade away.  
I used to feel your fire but now it's cold inside  
And you're back on the street like you didn't miss a beat.

Tell me what it takes to let you go  
Tell me how the pain's supposed to go  
Tell me how it is that you can sleep in the night  
Without thinking you lost everything that was good in your life to the toss of the dice?  
Tell me what it takes to let you go.

Tell me that you're happy that you're on your own  
Tell me that it's better when you're all alone  
Tell me that your body doesn't miss my touch  
Tell me that my lovin' didn't mean that much  
Tell me you ain't dyin' when you're cryin' for me!

_**YOU'RE GONNA NEED THE KLEENEX. JUST A FAIR WARNING TO YA!** _

* * *

"Miroku," he heard her say. He spun around, looking for her with desperation in the chilly dark forest. He had come back to the clearing, hoping to maybe find her here. It seemed she had found him however.

"Miroku, I see you."

He was panicking because her voice seemed to come from everywhere, and he couldn't pinpoint her location. "Sango! Where are you?" he cried frantically. "Please come to me, my love!" The wind seemed to pick up, causing him to feel cold now that he'd broken out in a sweat. "Please Sango! I'm sorry! I just want you to come home!"

Her sweet laughter bubbled out of the trees from every direction. Was she mocking him, or simply toying with his fragile emotional state? "Why should I come back to you?" she asked sweetly.

He felt his face redden with frustration. "Because of our children! Because we need you!" He was crying now, "BECAUSE I NEED YOU!"

"Shhh, Miroku, shhh." He ran to the edge of the tree line and circled the clearing, peering into the dark, fiercely trying to find his beautiful wife. "You can't have me back, darling. You must move on, for the sake of our children."

"NO!" he roared into the dark. "You have to come back!"

"Miroku, I told you I would sacrifice our babies to Naraku. I cannot come back." Her voice sounded sad. "I cannot bring any more dishonor to our house. I pray you won't either."

Miroku fell to his knees, sobbing. "Sango, I forgive you, you were angry that day, I know you didn't mean it. I just want you to come home and help us be a family again. I can't breathe without you! I can't move, I can't do anything!"

"You can drink my sake until you pass out every night though, while our children lay confused and worried at Kagome's house." Sango's anger resonated within the trees.

"It is the only thing I can do to make it from day to day." He wiped at his face with his sleeve. "I can't let them see the drunken heap I've become since you've been gone."

"You can't just dump them on InuYasha and Kagome. They will be having a pup of their own very soon. You absolutely must retrieve them. You will surely drown yourself in the sake and die from sorrow if you do not get them. They will be your salvation, and you theirs."

A soft white glow began to form in front of him as he sat in the dewy grass. It swirled and contorted until an image of Sango appeared. He cried softly as her hand caressed his cheek. "Miroku, you must move on. We can never be together again."

"Is there anything I might do to prevent this? Can I change something and make you return?" he pleaded.

"The stars have spun, our fate is sealed." She looked up into the night sky, drawing Miroku's gaze there too. He watched as the stars began to spin circular streaks of white light around the North Star, and everything began to go foggy.

"The stars have spun, Miroku," her voice whispered. "It's all over now."

He opened his eyes and found that he was only dreaming, again. Something about "that green shit" before bed always provoked the oddest dreams. He sat up, head throbbing as usual. It had now been about six weeks ago that she'd left. He'd only seen his children three times since then.

The last visit was horrible. He was so drunk he couldn't remember Shinju's name. His feisty little girl looked broken as he struggled to remember. Kagome seethed as she said, "Why don't we leave your Papa now, SHINJU. He's obviously still very sick from Naraku's miasma." She later sent InuYasha up to tell him that he wasn't going to see them again unless he straightened his ass up and came to their house. That way, she had told him to tell Miroku, if he started acting like an asswipe she could throw him out. She hated having to trudge her now 8 month pregnant body up that damn hill with 3 kids in tow. She decided it was time to make him come to her if he wanted to see them so badly.

Mushin and Hachi had come, hearing rumors that he had killed himself in his hut and no one wanted to bury his body because he smelled so bad. While they did indeed find him stinking up the place, he wasn't dead, but he was close. His eyes were so bloodshot there was hardly any white left to them, and the walls of his hut had become sticky with the smoke of "that green shit" he favored now over tobacco.

His very soul reeked of bad sake. He had run out of money about the time of his children's second visit, the day after that bad storm that lasted almost three days. He'd gone into a small village that had a distillery run by an older woman who was willing to let him have all the sake he wanted, so long as he bent her over the still once or twice a week and made it worth her while. She'd even bought a large amount of the incense so he had an excuse to come to her more often.

And so now this was his life. Instead of exorcising demons he was harboring them within his body, binding them in chains made of sake and "that green shit", and trading the very thing he promised only to Sango: his "granite"; in order to keep him well supplied in both. The only good that had come of it was he was getting some exercise from the walking, and the fresh air did wonders to dispel the foul odors of the smoke and alcohol.

He got up, took a leak by the plum tree, and then made his way into the little village to pay his penance to his brew-mistress. He went home with a bundle of fresh yet terrible quality sake on his back, and ended up sitting down by a small stream to rest for a bit. He was ashamed of himself. He was just about dead inside now, there was no dying left to do. His children were afraid of him and probably hated him now as well. The only woman he truly ever loved had left without a trace almost two moons ago, after she had told him she wanted to trade her children to go back in time, and he had told her their marriage was dissolved if that's how she felt. There was no life left in his blood, only toxic poisons that kept his pain away so that he could somehow manage to keep waking up and rolling out of bed.

Miroku sat watching the water flowing through the creek bed. He saw the first of the vivid fall leaves floating and swirling in the moving waters, feeling very much like he was nothing but a dried up, brown, dead leaf on a river of sake. _Look at them Miroku,_ he thought to himself in a voice that he barely recognized. _Look at the leaves. They have spent their entire life attached to the tree, green and happy in the summer sun. But even though they've fallen away, they are still beautiful, and still happy, floating downstream with friends and loved ones on a journey with many twists still yet to come. And they are not afraid. Just because they are gone from the tree doesn't mean they don't still live._

 _You must move on_ , he heard Sango's voice say. Just then a large red maple leaf came floating by, and three smaller ones all attached to the same stem floated by after it. _For the sake of the children. They will be your salvation, and you theirs._ He felt his need to drink again, getting teary eyed. _You will surely drown yourself in the sake and die from sorrow if you do not get them._ Her voice was firm and concerned.

He sighed heavily, tears streaming down his face, again. It was nothing for him to cry anymore. Behind drinking till he collapsed and smoking until he was nearly blind, he cried openly, and usually at the drop of a hat, being reminded of some memory or another. The memory that now flashed through his brain was that of the day his daughters were born, Sango being wrought with agonizing pain as she bore down, pushing the child from her. Kaede had wrapped Izumi swiftly in a clean cloth and pinched her little leg to start her crying. He was crying then too. So was Sango, his battle hardened bride. Then suddenly, Kaede had told Rin to fetch her another cloth quickly. Soon after, Shinju had slid neatly out as well. He held them both in his arms as Sango finished up with the afterbirth, and Kaede cleaned her up. How blessed he was. And even though he missed Kichirou's birth by only an hour, he remembered the heartwarming scene in their house that night as his family lay sleeping.

He smiled; his first genuine smile in a very long time. He knew that even though it had been a dream, Sango was right. He had to stop this nonsense and get on with it. He couldn't stop or slow time any more than anyone else could, and the sooner he got up and got past this enormous roadblock, the better off he was going to be; the better off they all would be.

He pulled the pack he carried full of sake to his side. With determined eyes, he uncorked the first bottle he reached, took one sip, and poured the rest into the stream.

"That's the smartest thing I've seen ye do in weeks, monk," Kaede said she crept softly up behind him, leading her horse through the lush, sweet grasses to the stream to drink, upstream of Miroku's sake dump.

"I thought it was best I start picking up better habits for myself if I'm going to bring my children home." He emptied the first bottle, rinsed it, and set it aside, reaching for another bottle. "Besides, this isn't very good sake anyway."

"And how ye came by it was none too good either, aye?" Miroku's shameless bartering of sex for sake and pot was known by anyone who listened hard enough. The woman he serviced was quite a gossip.

He sighed, emptying a third bottle. "How did I get to this, Kaede? How did I let this happen to myself and my children?"

She stood next to him, and placed her wrinkled and word out hand on his shoulder. "Houshi-sama, it doesn't matter now. What matters is that ye've stopped walking that path now. Ye must now find a way to come back to us."

He wiped at his eyes with his hand again. "But how am I going to make it without her?"

"When ye were born Miroku, was she there? Did she force yer first breath from yer lungs? When ye trained with the monk Mushin, was she there? Ye will find a way to go on, just like I'm sure she is having to find a way as well."

"I worry about her so much Kaede," he sobbed. "I just want her to come home."

"Miroku, look at me." He turned his dirty face to her. "Son, she's never coming back. It's time to let her go."

"But how do you know?" he asked in a tired and weepy voice.

Kaede wondered if now was the time to tell him or not. Shippo and Rin had been out on Ah-Un, going around just conversing on the beasts' back, as they sometimes did when there was nothing left to do in the village. They were out over the mountain range and had seen the Hiraikotsu flying, and so they left Ah-Un in a hidden spot while they went to see if they could find Sango. Shippo disguised himself as a berry bush and Rin hid behind him, long enough to see that she was still in constant training, and that she very clearly now belonged to Koga's pack mate Ginta. She bore a demon mating mark on the back of her neck, one that looked very similar to Kagome's, and therefore the two teenagers came back to tell Kaede of it, afraid to breathe a word to anyone else but her. Kaede had summoned Kagome down and told her and InuYasha, and past that, it was still a secret.

"Miroku, I want ye to come stay with me while the sake leaves yer body. We have much to discuss, and ye will need some medical attention." She helped him empty the remaining eight bottles into the stream and the two of them walked slowly back to her hut in Edo, where he began to pull his loose ends back together.

* * *

"Oji!" the children cried as InuYasha entered the door of their ever full house. They rushed to him as he crouched down to give and receive hugs from them. They had all finally stopped that habit of pulling at his ears after he pulled on theirs one day out of frustration. Now they only leapt into his arms and smoothed his long white hair.

"Alright, calm down. Where's Oba, I need to talk to her." Their pups (as they now were almost quite sure there were at least two, and possibly three) were probably going to come any day now. Since Miroku had fallen into his nightmares on the hill, and did nothing but drink sake and piss on his tree, InuYasha had been forced to find a line of work that didn't involve exorcizing demons. So he'd been going from village to town and in one case a small city, looking for work as a laborer because of his strength. This actually worked out pretty good. Most of the time, demons may or may not exist in every town, but almost always something needed to be repaired or built, and so the work was plentiful and the pay was very good. He had a huge household to feed: himself and Kagome, Miroku's three kids, Rin and Shippo, and on occasion Kohaku and Sesshomaru were known to drop in, and sometimes on top of that Kaede came. Their home was a constant bustle of activity. And soon they were about to add at least two and probably three infants to the mix. Oy!

With the money he'd made, he managed to add on to their already good sized house, and had added two extra rooms to relieve their need for space considerably. The original hut was now one large room where they could all crowd together and eat. When it was not meal time, it was Rin and Shippo's room, because they were the oldest. Then the smaller of the two new rooms belonged to Miroku's crew, and the larger room he saved for him and Kagome and their babies.

He went there now and found her lying on her back, with her huge globule shaped belly standing out from her, breathing deeply and trying to meditate. At first he thought she might be laboring because she had broken out in a sweat. Turns out she was just really hot and tired from carrying such a large burden on her tiny frame and she was ready to have these babies and get them out.

"It's going to be soon though I think, InuYasha. I think in the next week." Her face was glowing as she smiled at him. He gave her a lopsided smirk and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, as his palms were now pretty calloused from the hard labor he was doing. "I hope they have your ears," she said as her eyes twinkled in the lamplight.

He laid his head gently against her stomach and listened to the distinct heart beats of two pups that were crammed tight, and he wasn't ever positive but it sounded like there was a third heartbeat as well. It was hard to tell between the two that he was certain of making their own gurgling noises within her womb, as well as Kagome's body's noises… One of them kicked out against the pressure of his face, and he smiled. _I bet it's boys_ he thought as he took Kagome's hand. She had gone back to her meditations. He heard Shippo's voice in the main room, so he kissed her forehead and went to see if he'd brought in anything to eat.

"InuYasha, come outside for a sec, I need to talk to you." Shippo looked overly happy, like happier than he normally was, and he was a pretty happy guy in the first place. He was now much taller than he used to be. He'd grown about three feet in the two years that Kagome had been home, and his little face had grown more masculine, more angled and strong. He had taken to wearing a hunting jacket like InuYasha's, only his was dark blue with a circular motif on each sleeve. His hakema matched the jade green of the circles, and his auburn hair now hung loosely. He looked very much like InuYasha now, who he considered to be his best friend and big brother.

"Why are you all hoppin' around for, Shippo? What's going on now?" InuYasha was a little irritated that he'd forgotten to bring in some meat for dinner.

"It's Miroku! He's stopped drinking!" The kitsune was practically leaping in excitement.

InuYasha bonked him hard on the head. "Stop all that jumping! You're making me nervous! Kami, why are you such a pain in the ass!"

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd be happy to hear the news too!"

"Well sure, but I'm not going to act like that! I'm not going to jump around like this," he started prancing in the yard, trying to mimic Shippo's erratic "victory dance". "Oh InuYasha!" he mimicked, complete with huge grin and smiling eyes "Miroku's got off his lazy ass and stopped drinking and acting like a dip shit!"

Shippo had crossed his arms into his sleeves, another thing that made him look like InuYasha. "I don't look that damn stupid. Besides this is really important!" he whined. InuYasha stopped his imitation of Shippo to listen to what he had to say.

"What's going on?"

He related to him how he stopped at Kaede's to share his progress with her at the kitsune examinations. He saw Miroku there, who had told him to let InuYasha know that he was going to come get his kids as soon as he got himself together. She was giving him a special tea to help him with his jitters as he prepared to sleep his first night without passing out in what seemed like weeks. She had already ordered him to go bathe and found some clean clothes for him to wear. While he was out in the yard smoking (tobacco that Kaede was keeping in her hut for just this moment) she had told Shippo about the dilemma with the knowledge of Sango's new mate.

"Kaede said she hasn't told him about Sango and Ginta. She wanted me to ask you and Kagome what you thought she should do. Should she tell him now, or wait till he's cleaned up or what?"

"Hmm," he thought. "If we tell him now, it could drive him back to the bottle. If we wait until he's clear of it, he might think we were keeping a secret from him. Better to ask Kagome, she would know what to do."

They went inside to find her sitting straight up and shocked as hell, sputtering little incoherent whispers.

Her water had broke.

* * *

**This is a little lemony, if yer squeamish, skip it.**

Sango and Ginta had slept their first night together in the back of a filthy cave. In total, they made love nine times between the sun setting and the sun rising. About the seventh time, Ginta asked if he could mark her as his own, and she had begged him to do it. He sank his fangs into the back of her neck as he pounded her from behind, leaving a mark that would never fade, signaling to anyone who saw her that she was his. That afternoon when they finally woke up, she was absolutely agonizing in pain again. The little pill had done wonders but had worn off much too soon. She felt battered inside from all the love she'd made with Ginta, and drained as hell although she had slept a good six hours at least. Evidently he felt the same way as he stiffly got to his feet. They had stripped themselves down to nothing, as often as they were going at it, but it had proved to be a dirty decision. They both left their modesty behind as they strolled out, completely nude, and bathed at the mouth of the cave in the pouring rain. Koga and Hakkaku said nothing as they saw the mark on her neck, only nodded at Ginta in approval.

Now here they were, about a month later, still in the same dirty cave they now called home. They kept the skins of everything they killed and piled them into what they thought of as their bedroom, and now when they made love for hours on end it was on top of soft fur pelts instead of hard dusty stone. They kept no possessions inside the cave other than the skins. Anything else they needed they kept on their body. She had gone back to the mystery medicine men as soon as the rain ended, and bartered with them to get a dozen more of the pills in exchange for a large boar and a small dagger she had. She took one every night now. She trained for hours during the day, working up a good strong hurt, then she took the pill with her evening meal, and once her pain went away, they had passionate relations that usually lasted until dawn or just after.

Something that had surprised the both of them was that she had not come up pregnant yet. She thought for sure at least some of all of the seed Ginta had blown into her womb would have taken root by now, but nothing had come of it. Evidently the magic pill was also keeping her from bearing a hanyou child. They were glad for that small favor; she liked being full of him in that way and he loved to give it to her. Sango had already told him that if ishe came up pregnant she would hurl her boomerang until she caused it to come out, and he agreed that she should do it.

As for her weapon skills, she was consistently hurling the Hiraikotsu and hitting her mark almost every time. She was nearly done training. Now she would only have to practice intermittently to keep her skills in top shape. Soon she was going to be able to be a reputable slayer again.

Soon she was going to have to keep a promise she made to see her children and explain to them what had happened. And she wanted to apologize to Miroku.

She had explained to Ginta why she felt she had to go back, and he had agreed with her that it was better to make amends with old allies than to try to make new alliances with enemies. He was young, but he was very wise. A part of her thought this quality was what attracted her to Miroku all those years ago, even though she felt Ginta was completely different from him.

"Do you want me to stay here, alpha?" he asked her as they lay snuggling in the afterglow of round four. Ginta had begun taking the medicine too, but just a tiny piece of it, leaving the rest of it to her, only so he could keep up with her pace through the night.

"No. You are my mate and you will go with me to Edo when it is time. It won't be tomorrow, but it will be soon." She lay on her back with Ginta in her arms, his head lying on her breast. She was stroking his hair. "I wonder how much they have grown since I saw them."

"Sango," Ginta said as he lifted his head to look at her, "I want you to know that if you want to bring your children with you back here I won't stop you. I only want for you to be happy." He wrapped a strong arm around her. "I know how much they mean to you."

She rolled him off of her and straddled him, then took his iron inside of her. She pulled him into a sitting position and kissed him deeply as she rocked against him. Just as she was about to hit her climax, she broke the kiss and whispered, "I love you Ginta." Ginta's eyes flashed wide open, and then she was coming all over him, crying with ecstasy and her muscular body quivered against his. It was the first time she had told him she loved him, and it set him ablaze inside, filling him with a passion he'd never felt for her before, and he moved her strong body to rest on her hands and knees, where he could fill her full of his sticky seed and gaze at her mating mark. Finally he let loose with a wolf howl as he detonated deep inside of her, causing her to come again as well, and at the end of round five, they finally called it a night, drifting off to sleep as Ginta kept repeating to her "I love you too, Sango."


	7. Every Rose Has It's Thorn

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations****

* * *

Lyrics to _The Pusher_ property of Steppenwolf

You know the dealer, the dealer is a man  
With the love grass in his hand  
But the pusher is a monster  
He's not a natural man  
The dealer for a nickel  
Will sell you lots of sweet dreams  
But the pusher'll ruin your body  
He'll leave your mind to scream

* * *

Jiro was right, Sango had indeed been their fist customer. But she didn't know she'd played right into his hands. See, Jiro had brought some of their dope from the mainland with them, which was some of the finest quality on the Continent. It came from white poppies, and was inherently much more powerful than what these crimson beauties produced. He gave Sango a sample from their father's crop, just a taste you see. Just to get the hooks in her brain. After that, when she'd returned practically begging for more of it, he'd sold her twelve of their new crop that he'd just harvested, a much more inferior drug that was not as strong and didn't last nearly as long.

The little dagger she'd traded worked pleasingly as a scoring knife, and they had plenty to eat that week so the trade wasn't a total bust. When she retuned sometime the next week, she had given him nearly all her throwing stars, which she said were forged especially for her by a demon named Totosai. They were some of the highest quality weapons that Haru had ever seen, and so they'd traded three dozen pills for them, as they knew they could get triple their money back once they pawned them in the demon village to the south.

They now had a woman with them who traded her body and her time in the field for the stuff, and if Sango got the weakened mid-grade gummy balls, then this woman, Hikari, got the dregs. She ate it sometimes four times a day, but in this weakened form it lacked the aphrodisiac and possessed only a mild euphoric quality. The brothers saved a tiny sliver of the mid-grade and gave it to her at the end of the work day, after she'd done her share of the harvesting and then cooked a meal for them. Then as it kicked it, she would take them both on at once, and then they all fell into an exhausted and filthy sleep.

Sango started taking the pill twice a night now, because the affects of it had started weakening about half way through her lustful nights, leaving her aching and tired before Ginta was ready to turn in. And Ginta himself was getting hooked too. He liked the euphoric aspects that helped to cover up his pain at knowing Sango only allowed him to mark her has his mate because she was in desperate need of what he could to do her. After all, it was the medicine's effects that had brought them together in such an intimate way; it certainly was not because she was deeply in love with him as she had been with Miroku. He was also upset that she practically vomited at the thought of bearing his pup. The wave of happiness that overtook as the medicine took hold of his brain him helped him to forget why it was important anyway, and when she would fall into his arms night after night, he could love her sincerely regardless of what she returned to him.

There was an old man who lived alone on another part of the mountain range who grew vegetables and fruit who suffered from painful joints, and they had him hooked. He struggled to pinch enough coin together to buy it and the pipe to smoke it from. The brothers never cared what circumstances had befallen their clientele, only that they profited in some way from the juices that they took from the red flowers that had grown in their little plot.

Today Jiro and Haru were out about twelve miles to the east of Edo, and about twenty to south east of their farm. They carried a bundle of pipes and a small pouch of pills each. They normally went to a different village once a week, pitching their herbal remedy in a sideshow that would have reminded Kagome of the scenes in western movies where the big loud man sold some kind of hokey elixir to the townspeople, only to find later it was a mixture of several different types of alcohol. Haru was a great mouthpiece, and Jiro was great with keeping track of the money. They had started building a proper hut to carry them through the winter, and hopefully, if their father was kind enough to send them some of his dreg quality stock to help them make it through until their next crop came, they would have the manor house by the end of next year on a larger piece of fertile ground.

They walked into town hawking their "joy plant" extract, trying not to notice the tombstones that popped up in the eyes of every person they sold to that day.

* * *

**A LITTLE LEMONY HERE, READ WITH CAUTION!**

"Kami, Ginta!" Sango shrieked with bliss. He had been standing by the fire, watching her spit their dinner. Suddenly he pulled the strings on her little leather panel at the juncture of her legs and lifted her up so that he held her like a doll over his head. With her lotus right at lip level, he gently parted her with his tongue and caressed her there. The feeling of being suspended coupled with the feeling that Ginta was absolutely going to suck her dew drop right off of her body was amazing. He lowered her and then picked her up again, telling her to pull his loincloth up with her. He sat her on his iron spike as he stood near the mouth of the cave, without the aid of the magic pill, and loved his mate with fervor. Though she was without the aid of the drug as well, and every muscle on her ached, she still felt as if she was going to come any second, knowing now that he had taken the time to learn what would set her off the fastest. She felt him nibbling at her nipples through her armor, and she wrapped one arm around his shoulders to keep from falling and plunged one hand into his coarse gray tresses with the shock of black in the front.

"Do you know how much I love you, Sango?" he breathed as he pumped into her. "Do you know what lengths I would go to make you happy?"

She moaned out as she felt herself coming close to her first clean release in weeks. "Yes my mate!"

"Do you love me as much in return? Do you love me in a way that you would die without me?" Ginta thought this little experiment would be a little too bold, but he had to know.

Her body began to quake, on the edge of complete delirium, and so Ginta slowed his pace, determined for her to answer before he allowed her to gush her lotus' dew all over him. He was looking into her eyes, desperately searching for an answer.

Her breath was ragged, full of hot desire and a yearning to be satisfied. "Ginta, I get upset when I wake up and you're not beside me. I worry when I've lost you when we're hunting our food, even though I know you could find me because of my scent. When you go to use the bushes I miss you. Of course I would die without you."

Ginta kissed her roughly as he resumed his frenzied pace inside his mate's hot and eager loins, and shortly thereafter his seed thundered into her womb harder than ever. She winced in its searing heat, feeling it wash up inside her like molten metal, and then eased as she rewarded him with her own shattering orgasm, her silky inner muscles rippling up and down his slick shaft.

About that time they heard a rustling in the thick undergrowth of the forest outside the cave. They made out two voices yelling, and Sango and Ginta made to rearrange themselves quickly so as to confront whatever had entered the territory. They knew it wasn't Koga and Hakkaku because they were closer to Edo, patrolling over there the way Ginta remembered doing before he and Sango were thrown together in the back of their cave-home. Sango's ears made out one of the high voices calling her name, and then next voice was as familiar as the back of her own hand. It was Shippo.

She was embarrassed that the kitsune chose that very moment to show up, her being covered in the smell of a fresh rutting. But there was nothing to be done about it now, and his little nose would just have to deal with it. After all, he was venturing into her territory now, wasn't he? No, not her territory, _their_ territory, she thought as she looked at Ginta.

"It's Shippo."

"Should I hide?"

"No, he'll be able to smell it anyway." She touched his face. "I am not ashamed of you, Ginta, don't be so nervous."

A little smile crossed his face and he seemed to gain a little confidence. She exited the cavern, and threw the Hiraikotsu in the air, high and to the right so they would be able to follow its return path to her.

"We see it Sango! Stay there!" she heard a girl's voice yell. _Must be Rin_ she thought.

The two teenagers came running headlong to where Sango and Ginta stood, a little surprised that they'd been tracked down this easy. That medicine must have dulled their senses a bit if they'd been so clumsy as to leave blatant clues as to where they were staying.

Out of breath and obviously excited about something, Sango said, "Rest a second, and then explain what's going on."

Shippo caught the scent of their love almost immediately and he scowled at Sango. She felt her face redden at the knowledge of _his_ knowledge. She looked him in the eye though as he said, "You couldn't wait till later?" InuYasha's twin, right down to the sarcasm it seemed.

"That's not how it happens Shippo. You won't know that for a while yet." Sango tried to remember that this was a friend here, and so she kept her voice calm and her gaze even and friendly. She didn't want to hurt the first person she'd encountered from her old family.

"Oh yeah?" he smirked. He pulled Rin close and moved her hair aside. There on her neck, high behind her ear and very near to her hair line was his mark on her. It appeared as though he was trying to hide it from Sesshomaru, who no doubt would have been pissed beyond belief if he knew his precious little girl was out fucking some kitsune yokai that idolized his half-breed, half-wit half-brother. Sango and Ginta's eyes widened. "I think I know exactly how it happens," he said as Rin's face turned thirty shades of red.

Ginta took command of the situation. "Come on guys, this isn't why you came here. It was obviously very important, let's not get caught up in a battle over who's got the better discretion with their mate."

Shippo apologized to Rin for having shown their secret seal of love to another living being, but she seemed excited to finally have someone to talk to in case she had questions, and so she looked relieved.

"Sorry Sango, I didn't come here to get in a pissing match with you." He hugged her tightly, saying "We miss you so much! Everything's all fucked up at home."

Sango returned his embrace and kissed the top of his head. "How are my babies?" she asked in a suddenly weepy voice.

"They're fine, they're still with us at Kagome's." He saw her surprised look to hear they were not with their father, and he said, "Miroku's kinda fucked up right now. Fucked up real bad."

"Oh no," she said, guilt in her voice. "What's happened to him?"

"He drinks ALL day. The day he came back without you…" Shippo was upset by the memory of seeing Miroku heaving his ever loving guts up under his favorite tree, the whole reason they built the house there. That was the day they were going to bring the kids back, but he was hungover and so cranky, and he had insulted Kagome by accusing her of stealing his kids because they were human and the children she would carry would not be so lucky. InuYasha only spared him the ass whipping of his life because he could smell the sake that permeated his body. Miroku apologized later but Kagome never thought of him as much of a friend after that. Shippo told Sango about that day, and all the other days that had happened on the hill where there house sat. Days that invariably began with him pissing on his tree and puking in the woods, and nights that ended with no less than two whole bottles of sake and him either passed out in the yard or in the house, crying into her old kimono.

Sango's eyes teared at the thought of Miroku having succumbed to drinking himself into a comatose state. She thought he was the one who wanted to be rid of her, why was he so upset? And her children, what must they be thinking right now? Both of their parents have essentially abandoned them. Her guilt was so thick she could barely breathe.

Ginta put his arm around her waist, "It's not your fault Sango. You couldn't have known and couldn't have stopped him." _So gentle and wise_ , she thought.

"I don't think he was even mad at you Sango. I think he was mad at himself. That's why none of us could stop him." Shippo sounded as if he were talking about someone who had died.

"Wait, is he alive?" Panic crossed her face as Ginta held her tighter, expecting to find that Miroku really had died, and that was why the young kitsune and his mate were here. He didn't know how Sango was likely to feel about the fact that the father of her children, and her former husband with whom she'd spent many years with, had gone on to the next world.

"Yes, but barely. Kaede's taken him into her house to get him free of the sake and that green shit."

"Green shit?" she and Ginta asked in unison.

"Yeah, that incense he kept there outside, that green shit." Shippo had grimaced. "He's been smoking it. Kagome said in her time it's an illegal substance. She says they call it pot, and it makes you addicted to it. Makes you hungry and thirsty all the time and it stinks so bad when it's in your clothes and your hair… totally gross." Rin was nodding behind him.

"Then why are you here, Shippo? Just to visit?" Ginta asked.

"Oh!" He sounded excited again. "Kagome's having the pups, and she asked us to come get you!"

Sango blinked. "How did she know where to find us?"

Rin spoke. "The day that Shippo marked me we had come out to this mountain range so that InuYasha and Lord Sesshomaru couldn't smell it. We had to get far enough away from them you see…" she was blushing herself into a violety-rose color, hinting that they had to get far away from prying eyes and noses in order to love each other physically, the way you shouldn't love each other in front of your family.

"Yes," Shippo continued quickly, "and we saw Hiraikotsu flying through the air and we found you and Ginta over there on that big boulder, flinging it over and over. We saw your mark Sango. We didn't know what to do. We didn't know if you wanted to see us or not, and so we just let you be. But we told Kaede because we thought someone needed to know, and she told InuYasha and Kagome. We didn't think it prudent to tell Miroku or your children until we knew how you felt."

Rin continued, now only slightly rosy in her cheeks. "If Kagome hadn't gone into labor Kaede would have sent us anyway because she wanted to know if we should even tell Miroku you were out here since he's stopped drinking. She's afraid if we told him so soon that he might start drinking again, and if we waited to tell him she was afraid he wouldn't trust us anymore."

Sango took a deep breath. She really wanted to take a pill and forget about it all and just love her new mate in their cave until it all went away. She looked at Ginta. "I have a promise to keep to myself there, and it seems Kagome wants me by her side. I will give you the option of staying, but know that I want you to come and stand by me as my mate."

Ginta gazed lovingly into her dark brown eyes and said, "I go where you go." Evidently it was the romance of the moment, but both males eyed Rin at that point, sniffing her scent change. She hung her head, blushing deeper than ever.

Sango laughed. "We just had to pick demons with good noses didn't we Rin?"

Rin was so embarrassed that she hid her face in her hands, her cheeks feeling hot as coals.

"It's ok, Rin," Shippo said, copying InuYasha's smirk exactly. "I'll remember to whisper it in your ear next time." She slugged him in the arm and went back to hiding her face. Then Ginta looked down at Shippo and said, "And you called us lewd. Get a hold of yourself boy!" Evidently the thought of "next time" had gotten Shippo all aflutter and had caused a spike in his scent now as well. Now it was his turn to blush.

Sango hugged Rin as she laughed. "Ever get the feeling you've been left out of some funny joke when they do their smelling thing?"

"Yes," she said as she buried her red face in Sango's shoulder.

Shippo and Rin went back to where they had left Ah-Un, and Ginta and Sango began running back to Edo, running to see the half-hanyou babies.

* * *

"InuYASHAAAA!" Kagome cried as she bellowed out in pain. She swore to every god there was that there was no way in heaven or hell or in between that she was ever going to let him knock her up again. _Good thing there's going to be more than one_ , she thought as another contraction tore through her back and abdomen, _instant family, no need to have any more._

He was on pins and needles, nerves so charged he could have imploded if he stood still long enough. Thank Kami Kaede was quick in getting down here or else he would have gone crazy trying to placate her every wish as he stumbled around the house not knowing what to do for her. Now he raced to his screaming mate's side.

"Is there anything I can do Kagome?" He grabbed her hand. "I'll do whatever I can."

"You can promise not to ever do this to me again!" she hissed as she tried to break InuYasha's hand.

"Stop that Kagome, you're going to need your strength." Sango stepped into the room. Kagome's angry glare had turned to a triumphant gaze of relief at the sight of her old friend.

"Oh Sango! I'm so glad you're here!" Sango knelt beside her and gently pried her hand from InuYasha's.

"Why don't you concentrate on something more productive than crushing InuYasha's fingers, like deep breathing. The pain is going to come hard, but it's like a wave. You just have to ride the waves, okay?" She sat by her head, gently coaxing and guiding, as Kaede kept watch down below, waiting for one of the infants to crown so they could get her pushing.

"Nice mark ya got there Sango," InuYasha said. "Didn't take you long, did it?"

"Shut up and get out of here, now's not the time." She didn't bother to look at him.

Feeling especially cocky, he said, "Why not Koga? Did he push you away like I did?"

There was a black blur and then InuYasha was pinned against the wall, with Sango's katana firmly against his throat. _Surely she couldn't have moved that fast!_ he thought. _Sesshomaru might be able to, but not her!_ Sango's eyes were cold and smoldering with a thousand different emotions all at once. She gritted her teeth as she growled, "Feel like meeting daddy today, asshole?" She was in an incredible amount of pain. She had resisted taking her magic pill before leaving because she didn't want InuYasha to smell her want for her mate. Coming here was already proving to be more of a hassle than she wanted, and she hadn't even seen her children or Miroku yet.

"Sango, let him go," Ginta said as he stood in the doorway. InuYasha turned and saw the anger seething behind his eyes as he realized Ginta had heard what he said to Sango. Despite that, he was telling her to let him go. Maybe she had more valid reasons for picking Ginta over Koga after all.

Reluctantly, Sango sheathed her sword. "Listen dog-boy," she spoke to him as if he were one of her kids, "I came here because your laboring mate summoned me here. I didn't come to start or take shit from the likes of you." She was spitting she was so angry. "But if you're going to bring trouble to me, I will end it. Got it?"

InuYasha was a little afraid, and he was certainly outnumbered by her and Ginta together. In the interest of keeping peace, he backed down. Thinking back on their exchange, he recalled it being the first time he'd ever heard anything more profane than "damn" come out of her mouth. He smiled at her, genuinely. "I like your new vocabulary, Sango. It took you long enough to pick it up."

She turned from him, wordlessly, and went back to her friend, who was having another gut wrenching contraction. "Have you picked a name for your pup Kagome?"

After Kagome gasped through the longest contraction she'd had so far, she said, "It's going to be more than one. We think three, but definitely two." It explained why she looked like she was carrying a toddler inside of her.

"Oh how wonderful!" she said.

"Kagome ye need to bear down when the next pain comes," Kaede said in her calm, ever sure voice. "InuYasha, you have the bath ready?"

"Yeah, what do I need to do?" He was positively quaking.

"Nothing, come sit by your mate," Sango said, as she relinquished her spot at Kagome's side. She and Rin stood by with a clean cloth each, ready to grab what Kaede gave them.

"Push now," Kaede said sweetly and calmly. She could see black hair. As Kagome bore down, Sango and Rin's eyes lit up, as they had the vantage point of seeing the pup as it made its way into the world. Kagome had to stop to breathe, and in the next push it was out. Kaede tied the cord off with a piece of twine and then sliced it free. She handed it to Sango, who smiled and called out, "It's a girl!" as she flipped her on her stomach and gave it a swift smack on the butt. A small clod of fluid and blood shot to the floor, and then she gave a good healthy cry. Sango took the baby to the bath and wiped all the gunk from her tiny little body and then wrapped her tight in another clean cloth.

She went back to Kagome's side and showed her the little bundle she held in her arms. Hair as black as a raven, green eyes, Kagome's full lips, and two tiny little black dog ears. A perfect mix. Kagome began to cry, and Sango swore she even saw a tear forming in InuYasha's eyes as well. She handed the infant to her father, where he was absolutely enthralled with her, sniffing her and admiring her gorgeous eyes.

Soon she was bearing down again, this time it was Rin's turn to receive the child. As the head crowned, the baby starting crying while its body was still inside of its mother. "Oh my, a feisty little devil aren't ye?" Kaede said as Kagome pushed it out.

InuYasha said, "That's my boy! Give 'em hell on the way out son!"

Kaede repeated the process of tying the cord off and handing the baby to Rin to be cleaned. Rin smiled and called out, "It's another girl!" InuYasha looked pleasantly shocked. This pup had InuYasha's silvery white hair, human ears, and ice blue eyes. It seemed this little girl looked more like Sesshomaru, as she had a magenta stripe at each wrist. At first InuYasha was upset at this, thinking something fishy was going on, but Sango reminded him that he had magenta stripes too, just only in his true demon form. Rin showed the baby to Kagome, and then handed this child to InuYasha as well. He was definitely a beautiful sight, sitting there in his white juban (he had flung his haori off as he'd gotten hot in it from all the pacing) and holding his daughters, each of them quiet now; his little living set of yin and yang.

"Is there a third Kaede?" Kagome asked before she was overcome with another hard contraction. Kaede told her to bear down again, and then her face went pale and turned grave. Sango knelt beside her, holding yet another cloth. The child slipped effortlessly into Sango's hands where she rolled it on his stomach and began to rub its back furiously.

"Come on, little one," she whispered. She gently swatted its little butt, but nothing came out. She turned her back to Kagome and InuYasha as Kagome's afterbirth passed and she was being cleaned. The room was silent except for the sound of Sango trying to get this infant to breathe. She struck it on its back intermittently, held it upside down by the ankles and cleared its throat with her fingers. Minutes slowly passed. Sango stopped trying when the baby's body began to turn purple. She wrapped it tightly without taking it to the bath and covered its little face.

Kagome was instantly crushed. She began to sob as Sango knelt next to her. The baby was a boy and was the spitting image of InuYasha, right down to his smirk. The cord had been wrapped around his neck, and when he came out of her, his eyes were bulging out of his head and his tongue was sticking out. She didn't share those details of his first appearance. She did tell Kagome about the cord and that he'd come out looking a little rough, but she thought she'd fixed everything except his throat which must have closed completely shut between getting wrapped in the first place and coming out. InuYasha's tears flowed freely. His only son never had a chance.

Kaede tried to tell her that for whatever reason, fate had spared her son from some kind of evil that he surely would have met later in his life, and for that she should be grateful. Surprisingly enough, Kagome accepted it very well. She had done everything she could to stay healthy and fit, and even in a modern hospital the same outcome would have happened. She instead focused on her two little angels, her living yin and yang.

She named the first girl Haruko, which means "sun child" and the other she named Tsukiko, meaning "moon child". They decided not to name the boy, and Ginta offered to take the child and bury him properly. InuYasha thanked him and accepted it graciously, and apologized for making a scene earlier. Sango handed the baby's body to him and as he left their house he almost ran right into Miroku.

"Hey Ginta," he said cordially, still unaware that Ginta had mated Sango. He looked down at his arms and saw the dead baby there. "Oh Kami, no." He pulled the cloth away from his peaceful, yet dark purple face. "Boy or girl?"

"Boy," Ginta said nervously. He was not expecting to run into him so unexpectedly. "Two healthy girls though."

"Oh, so he was right, there were three." He said a prayer over the infant's body. "Lay him to rest, Ginta." He turned to go in the house.

Ginta turned and said a little prayer for Sango as he now regretted having offering to dig the child's grave. She was going to need him in there. He went down to the graveyard and dug as fast and as deep as he could, letting his canine instincts take over. Within minutes he had a deep grave dug, and he placed the baby inside after kissing it's forehead and sniffing it to see if there was any trace of a pulse before laying him inside, and there wasn't. He covered the body quickly and raced back to Kagome and InuYasha's house as he witnessed a heartbreaking embrace between Sango and Miroku and her children.

Turning away from the doorway, he walked into the edge of the forest, sat down on a log and wept.


	8. Time in a Bottle

Fan art for this story!!!

 

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko****

* * *

The world seemed to stop turning for Miroku as he entered the lively house. He saw her from behind: the high ponytail, the coral colored spaulders and cops, the pink sash that held her padded plates to her rear and stomach, the strings on her knee pads… Her stance was one that reminded him of when she was nervous, favoring to keep her weight on her left leg and her right slightly bent, as if ready to run at a second's notice. And then his eyes flicked to that of Ginta's mating mark. He saw the fang marks and Ginta's kanji that had been bitten into her soft flesh there and his heart sank. He felt his chest tighten, making it hard to breathe. His Sango had come home, but she was no longer his. He braced himself as she slowly turned to face him.

* * *

She felt his eyes on her as he stepped inside, imagining his eyes widening. She could practically feel his heartbeat in the floorboards, quickening and slamming throughout his every cell. In her mind's eye she saw him gaping with tears forming in his red eyes. She tried to think of what to say to him when she turned around. The rooms grew silent. All eyes were on he and she. She heard the rattle of the gold hoops on his staff, thinking back to a time when that sound meant so much to her tired ears at the end of a long day. Her mind raced as she remembered Ginta, who had spared InuYasha from having to dig his own son's grave. What was he going to do when he came back and saw Miroku standing here? _Kami, let this end well,_ she thought as she turned to meet his staring eyes.

* * *

Moments before, Kagome held both of her girls in her arms as InuYasha wiped away her tears that were being shed in this mixture of joy and tragedy. With a little help from Sango, she got into a sitting position and placed her babies in her lap. Their little fingers curled instinctively around her pinkies as she greeted them with her gentle voice.

"Tsukiko, Haruko, it's me, your Mama." She was smiling broadly down at them, her little yin and yang. She gently touched Haruko's puppy ears and giggled when the little girl turned her head away from her mother's touch.

"Sensitive already," InuYasha said. He kissed Kagome's cheek. "You did a great job."

Tsukiko sneezed a tiny baby sized 'achoo' and the whole room said "Awww!" Her silvery white hair was so shiny it seemed to glow, and it was already long. It reached her shoulders in the front, and just past the blades in the back. Her icy blue gaze was mesmerizing to all who looked at her, and her tiny magenta stripes were thin and dainty, feminine in comparison to Sesshomaru's wide ones, or InuYasha's jagged ones.

Haruko's puppy ears were still a little flattened to her head from having just been birthed, but InuYasha assured Kagome that they would spring up soon. They each had ten fingers and ten toes, upon which Tsukiko had sharp puppy claws as opposed to human nails like her twin. Haruko's emerald green eyes were breathtaking, and she had a pretty and full set of petal pink lips. Her hair was not as long as Tsukiko's but it was not short like Kagome had expected it to be; she could easily put either girl's hair into a ponytail.

Just as Ginta has finished receiving his orders from Kaede as to where to place the body of Kagome's stillborn son in the graveyard, they heard a brief exchange between him and Miroku, and steadied themselves for what was about to happen. Miroku stepped inside the house and stopped. His eyes were wide and disbelieving. He visibly shook. Everyone waited breathlessly as Sango closed her eyes and then turned to him.

Neither of them spoke. They took each other in, noting the differences and the similarities since they'd last faced. Miroku's eyes were red and had dark circles underneath them. He looked gaunt and tired, like he'd been fasting and not sleeping well. Sango's body had lost most of its mushy quality, all except around her stomach where the smallest of bulges sat, Ginta's only demand of her. He liked her snuggly belly and begged her to tone the muscle there but to leave the softness for him. She appeared to be in a lot of pain, and Miroku longed to give her the rub down she desperately needed and deserved, despite knowing she now belonged to Koga's pack mate. He jealously wondered which of them knew her favorite places on her body better, and then sadly put the thought out of his mind knowing that it didn't matter anymore. He knew demons mated for life. He knew that even if there was a chance for him and Sango, it was definitely blown to pieces now, and he would just have to accept that.

"Hello Miroku." Her eyes never lost his. "I hear you've been ill."

At first he couldn't make his mouth move. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, so many things to ask. He didn't know where to begin. Finally he looked at the floor, trying to shake himself of her doe eyed gaze. "Yes, I've been very ill," he croaked. "Actually, it's more like I've been hurting."

"I've been hurting too." She was hurting terribly now, as a matter of fact, both in her body and in her heart.

Just then the sound of children came giggling up the path and then Shippo was guiding Sango and Miroku's three children into the house. "Mama!" they all shouted as they ran to her. Kichirou jumped and cried for her to hold him, and the girls crowded around her for hugs.

"Don't you miss your Papa too?" she asked them.

"Oba said he was sick from that mean old Naraku's poisonous masma," Shinju said. "It made him very sick and made him act very strange."

"We wanted to see him, but Oji said he might not know who we were as long as the masma was in him. He even forgot Shinju's name!" Izumi had begun to cry. "We just wanted to go home but they said you were out getting back at Naraku for hurting Papa. And then we got scared that maybe he got you too, and then we thought we might never see you or Papa again."

Sango's eyes welled up. Kagome had told them that this was all Naraku's doing, not allowing her children to know it was really two adults whose idea of happily ever after were drastically different. She had made sure that she and Miroku were blameless, and carried their little outing that day into a true adventure, as Naraku surely would have planned something so despicable if he were alive.

"It's okay Izumi, we're both here now." Sango took her little girl into her arms and held her tightly. When she released her to hug Shinju, the little girl had gone to Miroku's arms. Izumi sobbed against his now clean purple robes as he cried into the top of her head. They had created a nightmare for themselves all the way around. Sango lifted her head and faced Miroku. She felt so bad about what she had said to him that started this whole thing in motion, and she felt bad that he had fallen into a dark depression after she finally decided to leave for good. And honestly, she felt a little bad that she had been so quick to allow Ginta to mark her. She would have gone back to Miroku that very instant and taken her whole family back to the little house on the hill with the stunted plum tree and the little stone Buddha in the yard. She and Miroku were on their knees with their children around them, and she leaned over and kissed him. "I'm sorry," she said as she began to cry in earnest. He swept her up in his free arm and sobbed loudly into where her neck and shoulder met, and their children clung to them, all crying and weeping at how much they all missed each other, all under the eyes of Ginta, who had peeked inside the doorway and then fled to the forest where he could allow his own tears to flow without anyone watching.

InuYasha looked at Kagome, who was now crying for Sango and Miroku and their family. "I wonder what's gonna happen now," he whispered into her ear. They both knew that if Miroku wanted Sango back he was going to have to fight Ginta to the death.

"Shippo," Sango said as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "would you mind watching them a bit longer, Miroku and I need to talk." He said he didn't mind, and she and Miroku got to their feet and walked outside.

"Sango," he said as the sun glittered in the tears still wet on his lashes, "I want you to come home. We're all so miserable without you. I don't care if you bring Ginta with you, I'll build a house for you next to our old one, just come home."

His eyes were pleading with her, and it nearly undid her resolve to be honest with him. "Miroku, I cannot come back here. Ginta and I have a home that we like in the wilderness. It's where my spirit cries to be, in the open air and among nature. Anywhere near here would choke me after a while." She took his hand as she led him up the path to their house. "I would be lying if I said I didn't think about coming back before Ginta and I mated, but Ginta and I truly love each other. And although I love you and the children as well, I don't belong here. It would be like trying to keep a fish in our water barrel. Sure it would survive, but it couldn't thrive." They were nearly to the plum tree. "I thrive in my cave in the mountains. The wilderness is my home."

Miroku took a deep breath, not really sure of what to say. And then he found the words he wanted and said, "Everyday that you've been gone has been utter hell for me. I guess you know that I'm nothing but a drunk now." He stopped at his tree, the one that drew him to build his house here. The morning he had come up here it was in full bloom, and he decided to face the house so that every morning he could wake up and gaze at its beauty. "I sat here under my tree every night, drinking bottle after bottle until I couldn't remember your face. I'd smoke that green shit until I couldn't remember your voice. And then the next morning when I'd wake up with my headache I'd tell myself it was you beating me on the head with that spoon, telling me to get up and get our kids. When I threw up every morning because I drank myself into utter darkness the night before, I'd tell myself it was because you accidentally put too much of one spice or another in my meal. And then that night when I'd be missing you and our babies so bad that my body shook, I'd repeat the process all over again." He pulled the cloth back at the door. "Smell my hell Sango."

She could smell the sickening odor of layers upon layers of pot smoke on the walls and the smell of his tears that had soaked into the floorboards. The fire pit needed to be swept out twenty times over. The dishes were all dirty and molding in one corner, and there were piles of bento boxes from Kaede's in the other. Her old kimono was nothing more than rags now, badly stained and smelling foully of smoke, sake, tears and drool. Their home had turned into an ugly house. The home that was here was full of love and family; this house was full of anguish and sorrow and filth.

"Please don't abandon us Sango. I respect that you have found another mate. I won't ask you to leave him. You obviously picked him for some reason. I don't care what the reason is either. Stay with him and be happy. But please," he now knelt before her, as if he were proposing to her, "please don't leave me and the kids again. Please come back often. We all miss you here. You know I suck at cooking, and I don't have the first idea about keeping a clean house. Please say you'll help me for a little while."

Sango stood uneasily in front of this place she used to call home. Part of her aching body cried out to her to ask Ginta what he thought about staying up here for a little while until she could get Miroku on his feet, and part of her said that one day would lead to two, two days would lead to four, and so on until she and Ginta and Miroku were in some kind of weird threesome marriage, one where she and Miroku disciplined and loved their children by day, but she and Ginta trained and then fucked all night long in the hut next door. The magic pill was crying out to be taken. It would make everything all better, but she wouldn't make it back to the cave before it took effect. She certainly loved being outdoors with Ginta, but she didn't want to have relations with him there, especially if Rin and Shippo were using their mountain range as a place for their own affairs.

She released his hand. "Miroku, you know I cannot stay. My choice has been made, but I can promise you one thing. I promise you that I will always love you and count you as one of my best friends. And I will come by to check on you and the kids as often as I can." She watched him as he struggled to get to his feet. "My advice to you is to get this house cleaned up and bring your babies home. They need you and you need them." She smiled at him. "You guys will be fine."

Miroku managed a weak smile but inside he was falling apart. His internal structure was giving out completely, and he knew that before the end of the night he would not be at Kaede's but somewhere else entirely, bending a middle aged woman over her still while trying to find where she kept the good stuff locked away. He was going to end this once and for all.

* * *

Rin had sent Ah-Un with a note on their bridle to Lord Sesshomaru to inform him of the birth of his two nieces. He totally surprised everyone by showing up and hand delivering two tiny silken kimonos that he had picked up in a demon village weeks earlier. He had discerned the babies' sexes from their scent, and was actually quite sad to hear that the boy child had been buried before being placed in his tiny silk pant suit. He admired Tsukiko, and told Kagome if two babies were ever too much that he would take her and lavish her in his palace as the princess she looked to be. "Hand's off, Oji," she'd told him with a grin.

"Gosh, it's so warm in here with all these people!" Rin said as she began to gather hear hair up to tie it back. Sesshomaru grunted and then was out the door in a flash before anyone had a chance to see that Rin had suddenly dropped the tie and let her hair back down, forgetting about Shippo's mark being on her neck. She groaned and said a little prayer for Shippo.

Sesshomaru saw the kitsune with Miroku and Sango's children, and then scented Ginta's tears on the wind close by. He zipped through the forest until he found the wolf demon and said sharply, "Ginta, stop crying and go get those kids from Shippo." Ginta's sadness had been replaced by sudden fear and he did as he'd been told quickly without question.

Shippo saw Ginta running towards him. "I think you're in trouble Shippo," he said as he led the kids away from him. He didn't know anyone to take them to except their parents, and so that's where Ginta went. As soon as the kids were a good distance away, Sesshomaru put himself right in front of Shippo, glaring down at him with eyes so cold it'd freeze your breath.

"This Sesshomaru demands to know why you've marked his Rin, and you will answer him this very second or you will die."

Shippo, embarrassed and scared out of his mind, stammered, "Well, ah… erm, you see… hmm, well…"

Sesshomaru's mokomoko shot out from his shoulder and grabbed Shippo by the throat. "You are angering this Sesshomaru boy. You'd better tell me why you'd ruin such a perfectly good human girl with your seed."

InuYasha had come running out of the house after Rin had confessed to him what Shippo and her had done. "Sesshomaru, let him go!"

Shippo's face was turning red from the pressure that the mokomoko was inflicting on him. He tried to use his fox magic but couldn't say the spell to get them to work. He'd even tried to take his little katana out and swipe at the furry white thing, but he was fading fast.

"Lord Sesshomaru! Put my mate down this instant!" Rin yelled at her adopted father.

He dropped Shippo flat on his ass and recoiled the mokomoko to his shoulder. He turned to Rin. "What are you doing with him Rin, this Sesshomaru thought we discussed your marriage to Kohaku was going to be arranged as soon as you were of age. Now you've gone and chosen… this," he pointed at Shippo, who was gasping for air, "as your lifelong mate? Do you know the implications of this?"

"Father, I love Shippo." Her brown eyes looked at Sesshomaru unwaveringly.

"Love doesn't play into it. Kohaku would have cared for you and kept you safe."

She smiled and said, "Father, what's the fun in that?"

"Fun? You would be able to live out your life without fear of someone trying to hurt you or fear of starvation." He had a puzzled look on his face. "Isn't that what luxury is?"

"Sure, but I'd be bored out of my gourd in under an hour. Shippo's exciting and fun in a way that Kohaku could never be. We fit with each other, Kohaku and I don't." She smiled as she tied her hair back and showed her mark off.

Sesshomaru sliced the tie with an effortless swipe of his claws. "Please don't show that disgusting sigul to this Sesshomaru's eyes Rin. Why do you want a life of danger and 'fun'?"

"Because silly, I'm a human, and that's what humans want!" Her voice was kind and honest. Being unable to argue with that, and irritated at having been defeated by her simple logic, he kissed her on her head and congratulated her, and then threatened Shippo with his energy whip and Bakusaiga should he ever allow anything to happen to her. He then made his leave and InuYasha stood with Tetsusaiga resting on his shoulder.

"Alright!" he declared as he sheathed his sword. "Since you two are obviously grown up enough to go out and get marked," he put his arms around their shoulders as he led them back to the house, "you're old enough to get your own hut where you can do whatever you want in the privacy of your own house. And if I catch you fucking in _my_ house, I'll kill ya both!" He smiled at both of them. "Finally! Some of my house guests will be leaving!"

Rin and Shippo shook their heads as InuYasha tried to imitate Shippo's victory dance.

* * *

After The hubbub died down at Kagome's, Sango, who had told their children she was still going to be out in the wilderness with her closest friend Ginta, had made her goodbyes to everyone. She promised she would by more often, now that everything seemed to be straightened out between everyone. Shippo and Rin were recognized as being mated for life and set about getting Miroku and Sango's kids safely into bed, and Kaede and Miroku walked back to her hut by the field. InuYasha and Kagome settled down to sleep with their twin girls between them, and the stars spun lazily overhead.

Once Miroku was sure the old woman was asleep, he took her horse and thundered out of Edo and into the village where his mistress lived. She asked what he was doing there so late and he backed her up against the wall and kissed her hard, causing her lips to swell up. He lifted up his robes as she opened her kimono for him, and he pounded into her as he desperately sought to pay her for what he would be taking tonight. "And I want the best you have," he said as he rammed himself into her as hard as he could. "None of this piss quality shit." He wasn't even out of breath as he continued, "I want what you sold to the Lord Sesshomaru." It was easily the best sake he'd ever had, and he tracked down the woman months before he and Sango split up, only because the bottle Sesshomaru had sent as a congratulations to InuYasha on finally knocking his mate up was hands down the best sake he'd ever tasted. She whimpered in pain as she agreed and asked him to slow down because he was hurting her. "Shut up and take it, bitch. It's the last fuck you're gonna get from me." He was flaming angry at Sango for turning down his reasonable offer, and he meant to end it. He meant to end all the anger, the sorrow, the frustration, all of it. He came in his mistress so hard that it leaked out of her before he was done pumping it in, and he let her slide to floor as she cried from the pain he'd put into her throbbing and unsatisfied flesh.

He reached under her counter and pulled out a locked trunk. He forced her to give him the key and saw the fine glass bottles that the highest quality sake came in, not the porcelain ones that the shitty stock was bottled in. He took six of them and then rode back into Edo. He propped his back up against his plum tree and uncorked the first bottle. He chugged it so hard and so fast that he did a double take to be sure he'd emptied it. He uncorked the second bottle and did the same. He took the third bottle, chugged half, belched and chugged some more. His vision was getting blurry. He managed to grab the fourth bottle but he couldn't uncork it, so he broke the bottle's neck off on the tree trunk and poured it down his throat. He could barely move now. He managed to uncork the fifth bottle, and he drank it to about half, felt himself getting ready to blackout, and leaned peacefully back against the plum tree. He guzzled the rest, spilling most of it on his purple robes. The sixth bottle was in his hand when he passed out.

Sometime after the moon set below the horizon, he stopped breathing. Miroku had finally drank Sango away forever.

* * *

Lyrics to _Whiskey Lullaby_ property of Brad Paisley (The only country song I've ever heard that was worth a shit)

She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette  
She broke his heart, he spent his whole life tryin' to forget  
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time  
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind  
Until the night

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger  
And finally drank away her memory  
Life is short but this time it was bigger  
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees  
We found him with his face down in the pillow  
With a note that said I'll love her till I die  
And when we buried him beneath the willow  
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby

* * *

OMG, I cried so hard. I actually had a panic attack the day before I wrote this because I knew what was going to happen.

It also touched on a big nerve because when my parents divorced my dad did the same thing, except we got him help in time and now he's healthy as he ever was.

Rest in Peace Miroku.


	9. The Other Side

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko****

* * *

InuYasha had been woken up three times in the night as his daughters begged to be fed. He had sat with Kagome nestled between his legs as he helped to hold her arms up as she fed them both. She dozed in that position, and then when they were done, they each took one infant and burped them. Diapers were changed at that time too, and then finally the girls were wrapped tightly and laid back in between them. At the third round of this rising, feeding, changing and sleeping ritual, InuYasha decided to give up and go on and begin the day.

He walked into the next room, where Miroku and Sango's children lay sleeping quietly in a little huddle. He walked into the main room where he found Shippo and Rin, intertwined but fully clothed (thank Kami), lying under a big blanket. He grabbed his haori off the peg by the door and walked outside to take a leak behind the house.

When he came back around to the front he happened to see Miroku's shape leaning against his tree on the hill in the pre dawn glow that seemed to spotlight him. _I thought he was at Kaede's…_ he thought. He stretched, grabbed a drink of water from the rain barrel, and then decided to go up there and see what his friend was up to.

Before he even got close to where Miroku sat, he could smell the sake, a lot of it, and it was the finest quality too. InuYasha closed his eyes and groaned. "Damn it. I knew it was going to be too much for him." He gritted his teeth, and walked a little faster wanting to be sure he at least got Miroku into his house so that he wouldn't embarrass himself.

"Hey Miroku!" he yelled, trying to rouse his friend before he got there. Miroku sometimes had a tendency to punch people that were shaking him awake. "Miroku, you need to go inside man! It's too cold for you to be sleeping like this outside." InuYasha listened for the sounds of him stirring, but heard nothing. In fact, he heard nothing at all. He heard no heartbeat, no sounds of snoring, not even his stomach growling. InuYasha stopped and sniffed the air. He smelled lots and lots of good sake, urine, grass; cold and coagulated blood. His face turned pale. He sprinted the rest of the distance and knelt before Miroku. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head. His fingers clutched an unopened glass bottle like it were going to run away from him. There was glass in his hair from where he'd broken the neck of one of the bottles over him because he couldn't uncork it. His face was still and locked in an expression of sadness and anger, and his robe was stained badly down the front of his chest where the sake had spilled some.

"Miroku, please don't be dead," InuYasha said as he shook Miroku's shoulder. His head rolled down and came to rest with his chin on his chest. His body was cold and stiff. InuYasha's eyes were wide with sadness. "Come on you pervert! Don't die like this man!" He slapped Miroku's face hard. Nothing happened. InuYasha sat down in front of his friend, staring at what had finally befallen Miroku. He yanked the bottle from his cold dead hands and fired it at the side of that stinking house. The glass exploded in a thousand directions and sent sake flying in millions of little diamond droplets.

InuYasha wept. He wept for a friend who at one time was a good person, despite being a little lecherous. He wept for a man who at one time was a great father and husband, a great family man. He wept for the monk who'd saved his ass more than once, and he wept for the friend that could never be replaced. He sat in front of Miroku's body and cried his heart out.

Eventually Shippo heard him and made his way to him, where they both looked at their friend, who appeared to have stopped to take a morning nap under his plum tree. His body reeked, but that was the norm for him as of late. The two of them finally found enough strength to lay him in his house and then went to find Kaede, since she was the last person to see him alive.

Kaede told them she heard him out in the stables as he rode off into the distance. She didn't figure he was coming back and decided to let Kami handle it. She woke up again though when he'd returned her horse and then assumed he just needed some time to think. It never occurred to her that he was rumbling into the other village in the dead of night, appeasing his sake goddess so he might be rewarded. She sighed heavily. She had hoped that Miroku would not have let this happen to himself.

She looked to where he had been sleeping and saw a rolled up scroll sitting next to his staff. InuYasha picked it up and handed it to her, afraid to read what it might say. She looked teary eyed. "Do ye want me to read it?" Shippo wiped at his eyes and nodded, speaking for InuYasha who was numb by this point.

She cleared her throat and began: "My dear friends, I have made up my mind that I cannot go on like this any further. I feel my very soul slowly leaving my body every day that I am without her, every day that she and I are not a family as we should be, with our beautiful children and our happy little home." She sniffled, wiped her eyes (even the missing one was tearing quite badly under the patch) with her tired and wrinkled hands. "I have decided to end this madness. I will go quietly into the night, as I have often thought about doing on other nights. I've been to the edge and seen what lies beyond for me. I've cleared my head and seen what lies ahead for me if I stay here with all of you. I see nothing but sorrow and pain all the rest of my days should I remain in this world. I have never wished in my entire life for death so badly. It makes me want my Kazanna back." Kaede's resolve to read melted for a bit as she cried. Ridding himself of the Kazanna was the most important thing he'd ever done, and he rejoiced everyday that he'd managed to rid his family of the horrible curse. She steadied herself and read on. "My children barely know me anymore, therefore they will not miss me as much as you think they will. I want you to keep my staff for Kichirou, and then give Izumi my long set of mala beads and Shinju the short set. They liked to play with them when they were babies and I want them to have them. Whatever is of value in the house, sell it and feed my children with it. There's not much but check the rock bin first, there are some expensive oils in it. Also look under the boards by the left front corner of the house, there are some coins and jewelry I was saving for Sango. It appears she is never coming home. My heart has been completely broken,"that was crossed out, "obliterated. I will miss you all, but I will miss Sango the most. I am doing this so we can all finally be at peace again. I will see you in heaven. Miroku."

They were all quietly sobbing. Their good friend had committed suicide over a reckless decision he'd made during a heated argument. Kaede quietly rolled the scroll back up. Her good eye was puffy and red from tears but she spoke calmly, as she had when Kagome's babies were being born. "We need to prepare his body and give him a proper funeral. I think it would be best to cremate him." They all slowly nodded, wiping at eyes that refused to be dry. "We'll use the wood from his house and the wood from his tree and build his pyre there on the hill." InuYasha knew what she was doing. She was going to erase all the bad memories of that spot from his children's minds. She knew they were too young to truly remember what would be happening this evening around sunset, and therefore thought it best to make it look like no one was ever there, to not let anything stir a memory that time would eventually bury for Izumi and Shinju.

"Shippo I'm going to need Rin's help. I need one of you to bring a travois up so we may lay his body in it. We need to bring him down here while you dismantle his house and cut down that tree." She was wiping at her eyes again. "Someone should send for Sango."

"Fuck that bitch!" InuYasha blurted out suddenly. "She's the one that started all this in the first damn place!" His wet amber eyes had taken on an angry glare. His hands were curled into hard fists.

"But you saw her yesterday InuYasha, you saw how she was hurting too," Shippo said as he was getting to his feet. "It's not like she wanted him to do this."

"She doesn't care about him anymore; she's too busy being holed up in that cave fucking that nasty wolf. She couldn't even tell her kids when she'd be coming back. Did you see how miserable they all looked when she walked out of here?" InuYasha was irritated to the point that he was shaking a little. This kind of behavior was common when he was young, back before Kagome had left for those agonizing three years, but since he'd matured into a man, he was rarely this upset over anything. Sango must have struck a nerve somewhere.

"InuYasha, Rin and I put those same kids to bed, I know how they were feeling. I know how miserable those children were!" Shippo's tears were flowing again. "Listen, I know you're not happy with Sango at all right now, but you have to believe me, she did not want him to do this. She wanted him to bring the children home with him and get on with his life, not end it. She still loves him, it was plain to see when she apologized to him yesterday!"

"Then why did he do it! What did she say to him to make him go from getting back on his feet to jumping into his grave head first?"

"She didn't want to come back here. I heard every word of it, InuYasha. You know I can hear from considerable distances. He wanted her and Ginta to come live in a hut next to him, where they could all be happy together. She told him her home was in the wilderness, that she couldn't stay here with him. He was trying to offer her a compromise in order to get her to stay and she wasn't interested. She wasn't nasty about it, but Miroku must have had all his hopes pinned on the idea, and she flat was opposed to it."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Kaede interrupted. "She is the mother of his children and she should be notified of his passing so as to take custody of them."

"Oh no, she's not taking those kids to live in a dirty cave with that mangy wolf, I'll make sure of that," InuYasha said.

"Said wolf buried a son for ye, remember? I think ye can grant him a bit more respect than this."

InuYasha had completely forgotten about his son. The poor child was doomed from the begining, and Ginta was kind enough to bury the boy for him as he sat with his mate and admired his living daughters. He hung his head. Why did this have to happen? He found himself wishing more than ever that he could turn back time, after spending three years trying to speed it up as he waited for Kagome to come back.

Finally after some time had passed, InuYasha stood and agreed that Sango had to be told, but that it should be Shippo to go since he knew where to find them. InuYasha went about making the travois there at Kaede's and then he bundled Miroku's body into a large sheet she had. He brought him back to her place on his back before the village had awoken. After Rin arrived, he excused himself to go home to Kagome and share the awful news with her, and then decide what to tell Miroku's children.

Kagome was heartbroken. Miroku had been a very good friend to her as well, despite his flirtatious nature, and she knew how much pain he was in after Sango had gone. Even though she was mad at him for becoming a living puddle of sake, she always thought he would find the strength to move past his sadness. Sometimes people are not as strong as they appear to be, she reasoned.

As for his children, InuYasha plopped the strands of beads into the girls' hands and told them the "masma" had come back stronger than ever, and their Papa had went to sleep and never woke up. Basically, this was the truth. The girls were sad, but Miroku was right, they were not as sad as InuYasha had expected them to be. Izumi said that it was alright that Papa had gone on to heaven. She said that someone had to be there to show Mama the way.

"Why do you say that sweetie?" he said as he cradled her in one arm and Shinju in the other. Kichirou sat playing with one of Rin's silk shoes, oblivious to everything.

"Papa came to me in a dream, Oji. He said him and Mama had to go away, but that he had to go first."

InuYasha's ears pricked up. "Him _and_ Mama?"

"Uh-huh. He had to go to heaven because he was the only one who knew how to get there. He said him and Mama were both bad sick, and the only way to get better was to go to heaven and ask Buddha to help them."

InuYasha looked down at Izumi. "What's wrong with Mama?"

Izumi cracked a small smile. "Oji, I thought you knew everything! Papa said she's taking some medicine that Naraku gave her, but it's not really medicine it's poison. It's how come her and Ginta were good friends."

InuYasha felt Kagome sit down next to him, with Tsukiko and Haruko tied to her in an onbuhimo that Rin had helped her with before she left. The infant girls were sleeping soundly on her back. She took Shinju in her arms and cuddled her as InuYasha hugged Izumi more tightly. "Izumi," Kagome said, "did he tell you anything about the medicine? Like who gave it to her?"

She looked into InuYasha's face with her pretty brown eyes and said, "Papa told me to make sure I told you it wasn't Ginta who gave it to her. Mama gave a little to Ginta, but he only takes a little of it, because he thinks its poison too."

"Papa knows you don't like Ginta," Shinju said, as she added her little voice to the story.

"Did you have the same dream?" Kagome asked.

"Yes, me and Izumi dream the same dreams all the time."

"Did he tell you who did give her the medicine?" InuYasha probed.

"A man with a loud voice and a deaf brother gave it to her. Papa says he will come here trying to sell it to the villagers, but he says you have to kill him before he does." Shinju spoke matter-of-factly, not beating around the bush. It was how she'd always been. "He says to take their two lives will spare many, many more."

InuYasha looked at Kagome, wondering if the little girls were channeling into something or if it was only a dream. Kagome was using her spiritual powers to discern whether or not the girls were telling the truth, and she nodded at InuYasha, agreeing that this indeed was Miroku speaking through his girls.

"Mama will come here today, she won't go to heaven yet. Papa isn't ready to show her the way." Izumi was playing with a strand of InuYasha's silvery hair.

"He says to be nice to her because she hurts too." Shinju was nestled in Kagome's arms, absently playing with the beads her father kept inside his haori to pray with. Izumi was wearing the strand he kept over his kazanna around her neck.

"Does he say anything else that we should know about?" Kagome's eyes were watery looking, but she held her tears back.

Izumi sighed lightly. "He says for us to not be sad, because Buddha wants us to all come together again in heaven. He says as long as we are good children we will be able to come when it is our time, and we won't be scared when it happens."

"He was holding your son," Shinju said. Kagome and InuYasha looked first at Shinju, and then at each other, and then back at her. The twins did not know about their boy child. He was whisked away by Ginta as soon as it was determined that he was lifeless. The girls arrived after his body had been taken.

"He's got my boy?" InuYasha whispered.

Izumi and Shinju smiled. "Yes!" Izumi said. "He's got the prettiest brown eyes, like Oba, and he's got the cutest little fangs!"

"And he laughs and smiles all the time!" Shinju added.

InuYasha felt his cries shuddering in his chest although he forced his eyes to remain dry. "Does he have a name?"

"Papa said Buddha called him Ashoka. It means 'without sadness' He says Buddha called him that so you would know he is happy and safe." Izumi got to her feet and threw her little arms around InuYasha. "I know you are sad, Oji. Today has been a very sad day for you and Oba and Shippo and Oba-chan. But you will see, everything will be alright."

InuYasha's eyes could no longer hold back. His relief was almost overpowering. He put his arm around Kagome as she cried tears of relief herself. Shinju and Izumi had joined hands and began to chant a mantra in sing-song little girl voices. There was a white light that began to emit from in between them. In the light, Kagome and InuYasha could make out a scene from their shared dream, a vision of Miroku standing on a flowered hillside, holding their happy son in his arms as he waved at them. He turned and then the vision was gone, but they heard the sound of a baby's laughter as the light died between the girls, and they knew everything they'd said was true, and Miroku's wishes would be followed to the letter.

* * *

"Sango!" Shippo was sure they would not be in the middle of making love, but he began calling for her while he was plenty far enough away to give her a chance to at least cover herself. The smell couldn't be helped, but he certainly didn't want to see her half or fully nude. As he closed in on the cave he could hear low voices and scuffling feet on the cave floor. Good, it appeared his eyes would be saved today.

"Sango! It's me, Shippo!" He was almost there. _How am I going to tell her? How do you tell someone that their former husband who they just saw yesterday killed himself?_ His mind was racing, and he hadn't even been up two hours yet.

Sango emerged, wearing only the yokai hide. The armor pieces were left off as she scrambled to cover her body. Her hair was loose and flying in the morning breeze, which was cooler here in the shaded mountains. Here eyes were half open, as if she'd be risen out of a dead sleep. She yawned. "What is it Shippo, we just got to sleep about an hour ago."

 _You've gotta be kidding me!_ Shippo thought. _Up all night like that? I wonder how she's not pregnant again, especially going at it at that pace!_ After they'd come home last night she popped two pills right out of the gate because she was in excruciating pain and quite upset about Miroku's desperate pleas for her to come home. She had put Ginta through enough without asking him to forget about being her mate. She made the decision to leave and she made the decision to be with Ginta, and she made the decision to stand by her decisions. Ginta popped his first whole pill, and so they were up all night long, loving each other in a crazed depraved delirium, one where she still had to stop and take a third pill before they were through. They had finally given it up just after dawn, about the time InuYasha was leaping through the still asleep village with Miroku's corpse on his back. She was still feeling the effects of the pill, and she knew if she was awake much longer, she would be inside after Shippo left, laying some more of her bruised lotus petals on her Ginta's iron spike.

"Sango, I'm sorry to bother you, I know you must be exhausted…" he added with a bit of an attitude, "but I have some terrible news. As much as it is going to hurt my nose, I think we should go inside and sit next to the fire."

She sat in Ginta's arms, as they struggled to keep from touching each other. Shippo's nose reacted indifferently to their scent changes, it was hard enough having to keep himself together as he relayed to them everything that Kaede had told him. And then he finally had to tell her why he'd come at all.

"Sango, InuYasha found Miroku slumped against the plum tree this morning. There were sake bottles everywhere."

"Oh no, but he said he was going to quit drinking," she said as she casually stroked the fur on Ginta's forearm.

Shippo took a deep breath as his eyes began to well up. "He died last night, Sango."

Her eyes went wide. Not thinking, she reached inside the cuff of her sleeve and pulled out one of her magic pills and popped it down. Ginta seemed unphased, only looking away from Shippo with a tired grunt. Sango didn't cry, she didn't say a word, only looked out the mouth of the cave and seemed lost in a memory.

She was remembering the dream she was having before Shippo had come and woke them up. She dreamed she saw Miroku with InuYasha's son. He was telling her that on the day that he died she would follow him in three days. He said not to be afraid, and not to worry about Ginta, that Buddha had plans for him. "All the pain will be gone in three days, Sango. You won't need that poison anymore." And then Miroku turned and walked up the flowery hill. And then Shippo had come hollering through the ravine and had awaken her with the news of Miroku's passing.

She popped the pill out of habit. There was no question she was as bad an addict to those pills as Miroku had been to the sake and "that green shit". She knew exactly what he was talking about when he told her how he drank himself into utter darkness night after night. She knew all too well.

"When is his body to be burned?" she asked nonchalantly, as if she were asking what time dinner was going to be.

"Sunset."

"We'll be there. Now let us sleep. We will see you in Edo near sunset." She turned from him and walked to the back of the cave, Ginta following her close behind. Shippo could smell their scents changing as they moved, meaning they were going to… He got up, transformed and flew high into the air so as not to hear the sounds they would soon be making, and then returned to Edo with more questions than answers.

* * *

Lyrics to _See You on the Other Side_ property of Ozzy Osbourne

Leaving, I hate to see you cry  
Grieving, I hate to say goodbye  
Dust and ash forever, yeah

Though I know we must be parted  
As sure as stars are in the sky  
I'm gonna see when it comes to glory  
And Ill see you, Ill see you on the other side


	10. Darkness, Darkness

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko****

* * *

The bright sunny morning soon gave way to gloomy gray clouds. It's as if the earth itself was mourning Miroku's ugly passing, like the land knew it had truly lost a hero during the night. Rin and Kaede washed his body and went about dressing him in clean robes. This process alone lasted until just after midday. InuYasha and Shippo went about collecting the valuables Miroku spoke of in his suicide letter, and then InuYasha nearly disintegrated the house with his sankon tessou*. They piled the stinking pieces of wood into a nice sized pyre and ringed the outside of it with stones. InuYasha shared with Shippo what had happened when he told Miroku's daughters of his death, and how they seemed to be channeling his spirit to them from beyond the grave.

"Are you sure it was really him? Like it wasn't an illusion?" Shippo asked cautiously.

"Shippo, the girls knew about my son. Miroku was the only person that wasn't in the house to know he was even born. The girls didn't come in until after Ginta had left to bury him. They said Miroku was holding him when they saw him." His eyes tried to tear up but he held himself together. "They told me Buddha named him Ashoka because it means 'without sadness'. They knew about my son, I believe every word they said." He eyed the plum tree that he had found Miroku's body under. His favorite spot, he practically made an indentation in the dirt from where he sat under it so often. "We're gonna to leave the tree. I think we should place his ashes here. It was his favorite place in all of Japan." Shippo agreed and after making sure the pyre was ready, they returned to Kaede's to help drag the travois up in a slow procession that made its way past every hut in Edo. Eventually, they stopped at the pyre on the hill, and hefted the travois and all onto the pile of stinking wood. Mourners and villagers lined up to lay a flower or two on his linen shrouded body and pay their respects to a monk who had helped take down the vile Naraku; to pay their respects to a true hero.

Shippo and InuYasha went back home to get some food before having to light the blaze that would turn Miroku's body to ash. Kagome was struggling with the infants, despite Shinju and Izumi's ultimate attempts to help in every way possible. Kichirou seemed to be quiet and peaceful while the infants were loud and cranky. Kagome had managed to get a good stew cooking while the girls looked after their baby cousins as they slept on the pallet. Rin came in soon after, as exhausted as InuYasha and Shippo were. She had done most of the work under Kaede's guidance. They all ate in quiet tiredness, awaiting Sango and Ginta's arrival; awaiting their final goodbye to their good friend Miroku.

* * *

About two hours before sunset, Sango and Ginta awoke from their drugged sleep. After Shippo had left they made love three more times. Their "bedroom" smelled like a whorehouse. The smell of their sex scent permeated every surface in that part of the cave, and what was worse was their very bodies had begun to take on the rank funk as well. They decided a bath in a hot spring was in order before going to Miroku's funeral. Unfortunately, they made no progress in getting cleaned up as Ginta bent her over the side of the spring and drilled her once before getting in, and then once again after they got out. Their days and nights were beginning to run together, as they stayed joined at the genitals most of the time now, stopping only to eat, use the bushes or sleep. Sango took half of a pill so she could make it through the trying day. She knew her aching body would not be able to last, and she knew her aching heart would not be able to either. Ginta took the other half; taking a piece of leather strapping and in effect, tying his iron spike down. He created a belt that went around his upper thighs to keep any of his erections he was bound to get from showing. The aphrodisiac was especially strong for him still, as he was not used to taking so much of the pill. He knew InuYasha and Shippo would be able to tell when he was getting one, but as long as he wasn't showing one, it might be enough to confuse them.

They came sprinting into town just as everyone was gathering at the top of the hill. Kagome had the pups on her back as she held Shinju and Izumi's hands on the way up the hill. Rin was holding Kichirou, and InuYasha and Shippo had led everyone behind Kaede while carrying two large flaming torches. The whole village had turned out to say goodbye to the friendly monk who had turned pitiful drunk. Sango and Ginta fell in line close to the rear, but they were soon shuffled up to right behind Kagome, who released the hands of the twins into the hands of their mother. Sango saw the girls had their father's prayer beads, and she swallowed hard, remembering a time when Miroku lived with them on his body, back when they were still young and innocent, tearing all over Japan trying to find Naraku and the Shikon no Tama fragments. The memory was strong, but not overpowering, thanks to the little magic pill she'd taken. It was enough for her lust to be just under the radar as well. She didn't have any strong urges to rape Ginta at the pyre as she'd feared. In fact she was feeling rather well for attending her ex-husband's funeral: pain free, slightly euphoric, but still lucid enough to have control over herself.

Kaede said some prayers over the body. InuYasha's eyes welled up against his will. Shippo's free flowing tears left shining tracks in the torchlight. Kaede turned to speak to the little mass of people who had turned out to be with the body as it burned. "Our monk Miroku was a very brave man. He was born with the curse of the Kazanna, and he sought to cure himself and his lineage of it once and for all. Eventually he would meet up with our InuYasha and Kagome and Shippo, and then they would be joined by Sango who would later become his wife." InuYasha closed his eyes to avoid glaring at Sango as Kaede said her kind words. "They would eventually settle on this very spot and start a beautiful family, with their twins Izumi and Shinju, and their son Kichirou. He was a friend to anyone who needed a helping hand or to anyone who needed an ear to listen, or a shoulder to cry on. He was especially a friend if ye had a demon that needed to be exorcized from yer home!" The crowd laughed low and respectfully. "Unfortunately, our poor monk lost his way somehow; lost himself in the bottom of a sake bottle. He left a note saying he felt he would be at peace now, and for us not to be sad at his passing. If ye must shed a tear for him this day, shed a tear of joy for a friend who was in pain but is now finally at peace." She turned and nodded at InuYasha, who nodded at Shippo, and they set the head and foot of his pyre ablaze.

"Ye may want to stand back, he was filled with sake when he died; the fire will be quite hot when it hits the wine in his body." The fire started slowly, but as it touched the linen and eventually Miroku's body, it did burn higher and hotter as it hit the alcohol. Everyone stood in quiet reverence as they watched Miroku's body burn, smelling sweetly of sacred oils that Kaede and Rin had embalmed him with, and of course the smell of burning sake. InuYasha and Shippo had laid their flaming torches on the pyre as well, and they joined their respective mates as they watched the flames slowly engulf the shell that housed their friend, knowing that he was gone from this plane of existence, but was able to talk through his little girls.

Sesshomaru showed up before the body was completely consumed by the fire and laid a large chrysanthemum on Miroku's chest. His usual expressionless face held sad eyes that did not scowl at Shippo as he hugged his crying daughter. He even gave InuYasha an awkward embrace before kissing Kagome's forehead. When he reached Sango, he embraced her openly, as well as her daughters, and told her he was sorry to hear of his passing. He patted Kichirou on the head, and then having paid his respects he took to the air, and soon after the villagers began to leave as well. Kagome's lack of sleep caused her to be the first of the group to leave, which Rin and Shippo followed her down, with Sango and Miroku's children. Kaede was tired and had done all she could do for Miroku, and so she said a few more prayers over the body and excused herself to her hut. Ginta decided Sango might need a moment to herself, and so he helped the old Kaede down the hill. One by one they left, until all that remained were InuYasha and Sango.

"I know how bad it hurts inside, Sango," he said as they stood watching the flames eat down into Miroku's sake filled flesh. "I know about your little pills. You think it helps but it only makes it worse."

She did not face him, figuring he was scenting it from her, not hearing the news of it from her oracle daughters. And like it or not, she knew she was hooked on whatever it was those farmers had given her. "You can't imagine InuYasha. Remember when Kikyo died? It's that kind of hell multiplied many times over."

InuYasha winced at the memory of his first love, Kikyo, who had stuck him to the tree Goshinboku, and who had died at Naraku's hands in a river of miasma after the collapse of Mt. Hakurei. He had lamented over her passing for weeks. It was a slice of hell he knew very well, and he could not imagine that pain being multiplied.

"Why did you let Ginta mark you?" he asked calmly and non-combatively.

"Because he was there, and I was not myself." She had answered him honest and true. "This pill… It took away all the aches and pains my body and mind had been living with for weeks. It made me mad with desire, and Ginta just happened to be there. When I let him do it I felt no love for him, only a fire in my belly that couldn't be doused by water. The thought of being marked was very attractive to me. It fueled that damn fire, and I begged him to do it."

InuYasha thought back to the night he marked Kagome. She had been scared that it would hurt so bad that she wouldn't be able to take it. InuYasha hadn't made love to her until after she was marked. And here Sango's mark had been begged for in the heat of passion. Kagome's was a mark of love; Sango's was a mark of lust.

"Do you know if Ginta loves you?" He felt a little guilty about asking such personal questions, but he remembered what Izumi had told him, that Miroku had to go to heaven first to show Sango the way to get there, and InuYasha wanted some answers before she was on her pyre.

"I thought he didn't. I thought he was like me, caught up in the moment and acted too rashly. But then I saw him through clear eyes one day. He knew that I liked to sleep on my left side, and so he put the softest pelts in our cave on that side of our pallet. He knew I didn't like talk first thing in the morning until after I had something to drink, so when he knew I was awake he would bring me some water. He knew my favorite flowers, my favorite smells, favorite foods… He even knew I preferred to hunt rabbits as opposed to bigger game because of the sport in it. He knew so much about me, as if he'd been watching me over many years. I still feel like I know nothing about him." She sighed as they stood watching the fire and smoke billow up from the now roaring pyre. "I think he assumed I would have come home yesterday," she said, speaking of Ginta.

"It could have saved Miroku's life." InuYasha turned to her. She was finally crying, albeit silently. "You know the day you left was the day he really died right?"

"Yes," she said as a tear trailed down her worn face. "I died that day too."

His face looked puzzled. "Then why didn't you come back?"

"I had brought shame and dishonor to my house. I decided it was best to never come back." She whimpered a little. "Oh InuYasha, why did this have to happen? Why couldn't I just have been happy with my life as it was?" She cried a little harder now. Despite the pill's effects, she could not deny her true feelings any longer. "Why couldn't I be happy to spend eternity with my husband and my children?"

Down the hill, just outside Kagome's house, Ginta sat with Shippo in the yard. Shippo had heard what she said just fine, but all Ginta made out was her sorrowful voice as she was overcome with wracking sobs. He saw her in the firelight as InuYasha put his arms around her and let her cry into his fire rat robe. He was suddenly filled with sadness and regret. He'd made a mistake in marking her, and now it was too late to put her back where she belonged. He now knew exactly how Koga would feel if he ever got his wish to be with Kagome. It was divine to be with her at their cave, but as soon as she was back where she belonged, in her village with her children, he knew how wrong it was for her to have ever been with him.

He told Shippo that he needed a moment alone in the bushes, and when he got up he fled to find Koga. He couldn't be with Sango anymore knowing that what he had done out of love for her had torn her very soul apart. He only hoped that she would be able to find solace in the village that was once her home and that she could find the strength to get her kids and get herself together. _I'm sorry Sango. I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye_ he thought as he ran to where he knew Koga would be. It was nearly the full moon, so he should be near the river to the northeast. He would rejoin his tribe and do his best to forget about Sango and that awful bitter medicine she took that helped her love him, and helped him forget that she didn't really love him back. He knew he could shake the "medicine" if he had the support of his pack around him, and so he ran through the forest that was on the edge of dusk hoping to find his salvation.

Sango stood sobbing into her friend's chest. She had hurt him too, forcing him to kiss her that day in the clearing and then attempting to sway his faithfulness to Kagome… What kind of monster had she turned into? InuYasha held her tight to him, encouraging her to finally let go of everything that had been trapped inside her. Slowly she pulled back from him. "I'm sorry InuYasha, I've gotten your haori all snotty," she said as she made to wipe the front of him off. He brushed her hand aside.

"It's unimportant. Why don't you go home and get some rest, it's been a very hard day for all of us."

"I don't want to take it anymore!" she spurted as she began crying again. "I don't want to take those damned pills anymore! It's what caused this isn't it?" She looked awful. She was taut and thinned out, every surface a sinewy muscle covered in clammy pale skin. She reeked of wolf stench and sex. Her hair looked dull and flat and full of split ends.

InuYasha grabbed her by her shoulders and squeezed gently. "Then don't take it."

"But," she began, "if I don't take it, my body hurts and aches so bad!"

"Deal with it." He wiped her face with his sleeve. "Listen, anything worth doing doesn't come easy. You have to work hard and overcome obstacles in order for it to be worthwhile. That pain will pass eventually. I used to come here on this hill about every other day and tell Miroku to put the bottle down and gather up his kids. He never listened to me. Don't you ignore me too." He was now crying again.

"Okay, InuYasha. I will listen. I will put the pills down." She was wiping her eyes again, and then finally she straightened up a bit. She looked at the pyre they stood in front of and said softly, "Miroku, I'm so sorry. I only did what I thought you wanted me to do." She turned and bid InuYasha goodnight and then went looking for Ginta. Now only InuYasha stood near the flames.

"My friend, I've done as you've asked me to do. The rest is in your hands."

* * *

She waited for him until it was very late in the night. She fell asleep inside with Shippo and Rin, and then as soon as there was enough light for her to make it back to her cave, she left. There was no sign of Ginta anywhere. It appeared that she was once again alone and on her own. Out of habit she popped a pill and then tried to make herself retch it back up. Deciding one more wasn't going to hurt, she fell asleep after pleasing her aching dew drop and lotus on her own. When she awoke it was already turning dark again outside, and so she set about preparing herself to make it through the dark night without Ginta or the magic medicine. She removed all the pills from her secret hiding spots and placed all the pills in a pile in a different "room". She couldn't bear to destroy them, as she'd traded the rest of her throwing stars for them. Maybe she could sell them to someone? Who cared, she just couldn't get rid of them.

She hunted, bringing down two rabbits and then starting a large warm fire. The nights were getting colder and colder all the time now. It wouldn't be long before even the days would lose their warmth, and then winter would be upon them. The thought of spending winter in a cave like this made her uneasy. Eventually she knew she was going to have to go back to the village. She wondered if InuYasha would mind her staying in the room with her children. She thought of her babies now as the first signs of her detoxification began. She pictured her identical twin girls, Shinju and Izumi. The both of them had blue gray eyes, straight pretty teeth and silky blue-black hair. Izumi was quiet and thoughtful, Shinju was brash and outspoken. The two of them complimented each other and made a whole. Her son, Kichirou, was often a happy, peaceful little guy, hardly ever crying and often times well behaved, even for a two year old. Sango knew that she had to clean up before going back to them, and it helped her to remain strong as she began to shake with the want of the magic little pill.

The night wore on. Every second that passed, Sango fell deeper and deeper into pain. The day she first took the medicine her body had been crying and aching. Tonight she was positively agonizing. It seemed that even breathing hurt her ribs. She cried as the pain intensified considerably sometime before dawn. Eventually she passed out from it, and slept for hours. Her sleep was filled with nightmares that revolved around Ginta and Miroku and her kids. She betrayed all of them over and over again, always in an effort to get the magic pill into her possession. She even had a dream where she had laid her children on a stone altar and sliced their throats. The blood ran down in crimson trickles as she watched Naraku come and lap it all up, and then he handed her a pill and her Hiraikotsu. "Come and get me, or should I come get you?" he asked as he laughed menacingly and withdrew from the altar.

She woke from that in a cold sweat. With Ginta gone she slept up near the front of the cave with the roaring fire. She felt a little better than when she went to sleep, but still a hair's breadth away from taking the pill again. "How long is this going to last?" she yelled at herself. "When can I be myself again?" She sobbed into her hands. She managed to eat a small amount of the rabbit, but only ended up throwing it up shortly after. She forced herself to fall back asleep when she couldn't take the pain any longer. Most of the period she slept this time was dreamless.

Ginta had snuck up to the cave and scented that she was free of the "medicine". He watched her writhe painfully in her sleep, and cried softly as he turned and left her. Now that she was free of it, their passionate affair would mean nothing as he knew she would return to her village where she belonged and finished raising her children. He was now free of his dependence as well, although he had much less to deal with having not really taken too much of it. He thought of her and what torment she must be going through. It hurt him to leave her this way, but he knew it was the only way. The fact that making her go back to where she belonged by any means necessary was the right thing to do helped him stay true to his mission and not interfere with her process of ridding herself of the poison. Koga had told him he owed her at least an explanation, she was still his mate until one or the other died. He left a batch of her favorite flowers outside the cave entrance, hoping she would find them when she woke next, if only to know that he hadn't forgotten about her. As for the rest, he still had a lot of growing up to do, and lacked the courage to tell her anything to her face. He sprinted through the early morning as he raced back to Koga and Hakkaku, picking up the life he once had himself.

* * *

Rin and Shippo had made an early morning trek out to a huge tree in the middle of nowhere. It was large and hollow and filled with soft moss. They did their mated duty, being dreadfully careful to not make any kits. These two are still but children, Shippo being close to 14 and Rin being about 16, and this word weaver does not wish to divulge the details of their sweet and genuine love for each other. Just know that as opposed to Sango's rough and lustful ways with Ginta (who knew no other way) theirs was gentle and filled with love, and unstained by the impurity of poison.

After they had finished, they set about gathering some flowers to place at Miroku's grave. The pyre had finally burned down, and the ashes were gathered in a large clay pot. They buried the pot under the plum tree and a stone cairn was erected to mark his spot. Miroku was quite fond of anything that was pink, and this field seemed to be brimming with all shades of pink wildflowers. They gathered a large bunch of them and then headed back to Edo.

Kagome and InuYasha had decided that in regards to their full house, it would be best for them to allow Shippo and Rin to stay with them to help take care of the five little ones they had in their care. When Miroku's twin oracles awoke, they told them that this is what Miroku wished for his kids, and that he was surprised InuYasha had thought of it on his own. "Ha, I know it's him now!" he said with a grin. "Only Miroku could find a way to insult me from beyond the grave!"

Just about the time that the girls were helping Kagome with fixing the rice meal, they both looked up and said in unison, "It's the man with the loud voice."

InuYasha was cradling Haruko in his arms while Tsukiko slept in his lap. He remembered what Miroku had told him, that this was the man who introduced the poison to Sango. Miroku had told him that the man with the loud voice and his deaf brother were to be slain; to be made to give up their lives in order to save many more. He gently placed the pups in their onbuhimo and told the girls not to come outside. Shinju looked up at him and said, "Oji, we have already seen their blood as foretold to us. Just go do the deed." InuYasha nodded at her, and then stomped down to the edge of the village where Haru was calling out, "Cure your aches and pains, my brothers and sisters! Fight those sad feelings! I bring with me medicine from the Continent! My friends, come taste the joy plant extract!"

With every word Haru called, InuYasha's temper flared. These were the men who had poisoned his friend. These were the men who assured the death of two people he cared a lot about. He felt his yokai inside begging to come out and feed… He now had better control over his demon side. Kagome had helped him concentrate on coming back to himself when it took over. He'd nearly mowed down the whole side a mountain in struggling to control it, but eventually he'd mastered the technique. He thought it was best to let that beast come out and take care of this.

He felt his eyes get hot in his skull as the demon blood turned his eyes red. He felt his claws lengthen and sharpen themselves. His fangs grew longer. His senses heightened. He could feel every speck of dust under his feet, smell every breath that rolled from the loud man's mouth, taste the very bitterness of the joy plant itself. He felt his chest rumbling with a thunderous growl, and then he felt himself go to all fours and run like the dog demon he had turned into.

Jiro was smiling and waving to the villagers as they came out of their huts to look at the traveling salesmen. As he looked off to the right, he saw a woman's face turn from curiosity into fear as she took her children and led them back inside their tiny hut. Then he turned to his left, just in time to see InuYasha leap at his brother with his mouth open wide and snarling. Haru was knocked to the ground, and InuYasha tore relentlessly at the man's throat, ripping that loud hawker's voice right out of him. Jiro stood trembling at the sight of him. He fell to his knees and begged for mercy, but it fell on deaf ears. InuYasha tore him limb from poisoned limb and shredded his flesh with his razor sharp claws. Afterward, he drug the bodies away from the village and allowed the beast to eat what was salvageable. Then he took control of himself; it was all very quick.

He hauled their packs up to the house where he sat them in the corner, meaning to go through them after he bathed. The girls had started a bath for him, and he finished filling the tub as Izumi said, "Papa liked how you ate them. He said it was proper to be digested and shat out after what they'd done to Mama." He smiled at her and patted her head as she and Shinju left to give him some privacy. He washed the stinking blood from his claws and mouth, scrubbed it out of his hair, and rinsed the sweat and grossness that had accumulated on his skin. When he was clean he lounged in his juban and sleeping hakema as the family crowded around for some dinner. Rin and Shippo came in with a small boar that they spit and served, and InuYasha thanked them for not having their relations in the house, although the smell was still present on Rin's body. Sometimes having a keen nose was a bitch, he thought.

After dinner, InuYasha walked out to the yard where he took his kiseru and smoked some tobacco he had been stockpiling for Miroku. He heard the sound of little girl feet coming out of the house. Shinju and Izumi had joined hands around him so that it was like he was tied by a rope made of their arms. They started chanting a mantra in their small but happy voices, and then suddenly he found himself enveloped in a pure white light. As his eyes adjusted, he saw the flowered hillside and Miroku standing at the top, holding Ashoka, who was cooing and laughing happily.

"InuYasha!" Miroku called in his familiar voice.

"Miroku? How… how did I get here?" He looked down and saw the grass of his front yard, but when he looked up he only saw that heavenly scene that the girls had shown him and Kagome the day that Miroku was found under his tree, dead from alcohol poisoning.

"Shinju and Izumi are extremely talented. Ever since they took possession of my beads, it seems to have unlocked their spiritual powers." He looked down at Ashoka. "Would you like to meet your son?"

InuYasha felt himself being moved toward Miroku, who passed the infant into his arms carefully. The boy was like looking into a mirror. The only difference was the beautiful brown eyes, Kagome's eyes. The infant saw his father and smiled so happily that it felt like InuYasha's heart was going to break from joy. The pup laughed and reached up and curled his fingers around InuYasha's as he bent to smell of him. A perfect baby boy.

"InuYasha, I brought you here because I didn't want them to know…" a look of worry and concern crossed Miroku's face, but then it passed as quickly as it had come. "Sango is going to die tomorrow. I don't want her to be alone when it happens. I was hoping you'd be able to go to her."

InuYasha tore his gaze from his smiling son and looked at Miroku. "Why not Ginta?"

Miroku sighed. "Ginta has another purpose now. Soon it will all become very clear, but know that he played a vital role in all of this. Buddha has big plans yet. He says not to worry. Listen to me very well InuYasha." The monk paced impatiently, as if it was physically hard for him to wait for the outcomes of Buddha's plans. "This is the last time you will see me like this. My daughters will only see me once more after our visit now. It is imperative that you go to the field in the mountains where the brothers kept their farm. You must go to their hut and tell a woman named Hikari to find Ginta, tell her how to get to where Koga's patrol will be. She is sick with the poison too. After that, take the leather pouch from the hook in the hut. You will know it when you see it. Take that pouch and a gathering of the red flowers there and take all of it with you to Sango. It is what she needs to help her find her way to me. When she begins to close her eyes, tell her it was me who sent you and the gifts. She will not be afraid after that, and she will die in peace."

The vision was beginning to fade. "But how will I know where to go and how to remember everything you've told me?" InuYasha asked as Miroku took Ashoka from him.

"I've locked everything into your mind. Don't worry about it, you will know what to do like it's instinct. InuYasha, you are my very best friend. I have faith in you. This will all be over soon." He turned and walked back up the flowered hill, and then InuYasha found himself sitting in his yard with his pipe in his hands. The little girls released him, kissed him on his cheeks, and then giggled as they raced inside, hearing Rin declare it was time for all little girls to go to sleep. He abandoned finishing the pipe and went instead to look inside the packs he had taken from the men he slaughtered. Inside were lots of pipes, they looked very different from his kiseru, big and wide like a bamboo stalk, with a bowl that you could detach and fill and then reattach. _Useless_ he thought as he threw them in the fire. He found the pouches of the pills and decided to bury them, instinctively knowing the smoke from them would kill everyone in the house. He found money, jewelry, weapons, even fruit that people had exchanged for the poison. All of this he kept, and then went outside. He buried the poisonous sticky pills behind the house, where he and Shippo could piss on them. _Fitting enough tribute to the poison and the assholes that made it_ he thought as he christened the mound and then went inside to sleep.

* * *

Lyrics to _Darkness, Darkness_ property of the Youngbloods, though I am quoting the Robert Plant version (slightly different)

Darkness, darkness, long and lonesome,  
Is the day that brings me here  
I have felt the edge of sadness,  
I have known the depths of fear

Darkness, darkness, be my blanket,  
Cover me with the endless night  
Take away this pain of knowing,  
Fill this emptiness with light.

  
*sankon tessou= iron reaver soul stealer


	11. Gone Away

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. ****

* * *

Lyrics to _Mr. Brownstone_ property of Guns N' Roses.

We been dancin' with Mr. Brownstone  
He's been knockin'  
He won't leave me alone

I used to do a little but a little wouldn't do it,  
So the little got more and more.  
I just keep tryin' to get a little better  
Said a little better than before…

* * *

Lyrics to _A Million to One_ property of KISS

One of these days you'll come out of your haze,  
no matter what you do  
It'll be too late, something good won't wait,  
love is runnin' out on you

* * *

"Sango," she heard him say. She shook her head against his voice. She knew why he was calling out to her, and she thought if she could ignore him then he would ignore her.

"Sango, that's not gonna work." Hmm. Now he was a mind reader? _Wish he'd been a mind reader when we were younger. He would've known how I felt about all that damn flirting._

"I was young, you have to forgive me for that. You know I never touched another woman once we married."

_Ahh, but what about between the time you asked me and the time we married? What about then?_

"I might have embraced a lonely woman, true. But I never _loved_ anyone but you, ever. My entire life was meaningless until you entered it, and that's the truth, Sango."

She felt herself calming. She opened her eyes. She saw blue skies and puffy white clouds. She felt soft, sweet grass beneath her, and she felt like her old self again. She sat up, looking around in disbelief, and she gasped softly. She was surrounded by the beautiful red flowers that she saw at the farm where the brothers Haru and Jiro took her. They were bright and cheerful and waved frantically on the breeze, as if saying hello to her. It was simply the most serene place she'd ever been in her entire life.

"Are you going to speak to me or do I have to keep reading your mind, my dear?"

She turned to look behind her and saw Miroku sitting by where her head had been laying. He was holding InuYasha and Kagome's son in his arms, as he had every time he was seen here. The baby slept now, smiling quietly in his blanket as he snored lightly.

"Why do I keep coming here, Miroku?" she asked. "It's the most peaceful place I've ever been to, and I've never seen anything like it anywhere. Why do I get the feeling I'm dreaming again?"

Miroku chuckled softly. "Sango, you _are_ dreaming. But it's very important that I speak to you here, where you can be at peace and truly listen to what I have to say."

He held out his hand, and in it sat one of the brown and gritty, bitter, sticky pills, one of the ones Sango had grown more than accustomed to taking nearly everyday now. She winced and moved away from him.

"I see the poison is gone now. That much is certain." He pocketed the pill. "I am so happy Sango that you were able to let it go. But I have come to remind you that it has now been three days since my death, and you will have to meet me here today for real."

Her eyes stared blankly back at him. "What do you mean? I thought breaking my habit meant I would live?"

"Well," he said as he sighed, "it turns out that Buddha has a different set of plans for us. You are going to have to do something though. I have to plant it in your head here in the dreamscape because you won't do it on your own anymore."

He got up and took her hand, helping her to her feet. They walked to the top of the flowered hillside and looked down into a massive valley. She saw the Great Buddha on his cloud throne. "See, Sango. In order for you to complete Buddha's business, you have to come here. He can't manipulate you from where he sits now. And he has much to say to you."

"I don't understand Miroku…"

"Breaking your habit saved your soul. The three days you spent suffering on purpose saved your very spirit from eternal damnation. You have been purged of your sin now." He was gazing upon Buddha's face, his heart calm and happy, knowing that his beloved Sango would soon be with him.

She looked at him uneasily. "My sin? What sin have I committed that I don't already know about?"

He looked down at her. "You made love to a man who truly loved you, but you used him." Her blushing cheeks had Ginta's name in them. "You never really loved him, yet you broke his heart, same as you broke mine." He looked off into the distance. "When you broke my heart, it was different. We had legitimate problems between each other, but those issues we had only formed because of our great love for one another. Had we kept cooler heads that day in the clearing, this would not be happening now." He was smiling a little. "We would still have our little house on the hill with the plum tree, and our beautiful babies. But then we parted. We parted in anger and sorrow, and I left to drown myself while you left for the comfort of old memories, too afraid of what our peaceful future held.

"I know why you wanted to go back Sango." He placed the pup in a basket hanging from the bough of a tree, a plum tree, which was at the top of the hill. He turned and held her against him lovingly. "I know you feared the peace because of what happened to you and Kohaku. You lived a very peaceful life then, and then came that battle with Naraku's incarnation. He forced Kohaku to kill your countrymen, and then your father, and then he very nearly killed you as well. You were afraid of that happening again, and so you were afraid to not be ready for anything. That fear turned into an obsession over time." He was smoothing her hair down her back as she cried quietly in his arms. "When you failed your own test in the clearing, you were more afraid than ever that something was going to take our babies away from us, and that we would have to just watch as someone murdered them, or murdered us all… Your thoughts became consumed by getting back to your fighting shape, even though your heart said it was for your family's sake and your mind said it was for the thrill of it all. You were conflicted about the reasons why from the beginning, but you ran with the obsession anyway. And then that awful pain started, and you thought that pill would fix it."

"It only made things worse," she cried. "It just covered up both reasons, didn't it?" She was clutching him tightly and sobbing. "I fucked up bad didn't I?"

He smiled as he raised her chin to look up at him. "My sweetness, it is human nature to fuck up on a daily basis. Don't be too hard on yourself." He kissed the tip of her nose. "You didn't lose your soul until you laid with Ginta. It was very obvious that he loved you as much as I do, maybe more at the time because your love was new to him, and I was in despair over you, not sure if I loved you from one minute to the next."

Sango was looking at the ground again. "I did not love him, yet I made love to him, and that is how I broke his heart, isn't it?" She wiped her eyes. "I let him mark me as his lifelong mate when I felt nothing for him inside my soul."

"That was your sin, a sin which you now recognize and have since atoned for." He put his face into her hair. "When I saw you had mated him, I wondered why Buddha allowed me to see it, the mark I mean. If you could have cut my still beating heart from my body it could not have hurt any worse than the sight of that mark did." He was peaceful and serene looking, despite the painful memory he recalled. "I couldn't imagine how someone who loved everyone she touched so deeply, could have no feelings for the demon she was mated to. Buddha let me hear the lies you told Ginta over and over, and I simply could not believe what I heard. That poison took everything in your soul and turned it against your very nature. You were transformed into an opposite of yourself. Buddha showed me how to save you once I came here. And so I shall bring you here with me today."

He pulled away from her, and then took her face in his palm and kissed her. She began to cry harder as the feel of his warm lips pressed sweetly against hers brought back the memories of thousands of kisses he'd given her. He placed two fingers on her forehead and closed his eyes. When he removed them, he said, "I will be reunited with you today, and we shall be together again in peace. Now sleep, there is still work for you to do." He sat with her in the grass, laid her back, and then laid beside her with his arm over her, just like they used to sleep together before the children were born. She was soon drifting off into a deeper rest as the vision of heaven faded.

* * *

 _Damn it, frost on the ground already?_ he thought as he stepped outside. InuYasha was up before dawn, thanks to Tsukiko and Haruko. It didn't matter anyway, he had a lot of shit to get to as it was, better to get an early start. The first thing he did was piss on the little mound of pills he'd buried the night before. Then he went to the bushes and eliminated the bodies of the two men his demon beast had fed upon. After that he ate a bit of the boar that was left over from last night and then stood outside his house, sniffing. Miroku said he would know where to go like it was instinct, but so far his instincts were telling him to go back to bed. He started walking towards Edo's edge, and then he just kept walking, letting his feet take him wherever. He felt like he was aimlessly wandering, but in reality his instincts were taking over. Soon he was running off through the forest in the direction of the mountain range. By late morning he'd reached the farm.

Most of the flowers were gone now, having been harvested into the little pills. But there was a small patch of stragglers on the edge of the plot that waved happy and bright in the cool fall wind. He saw the hut, and went there first. Inside was a mess. There were daggers and knives of all sorts lying around, most of them rusty or covered in a sticky almond colored residue. There was vegetable matter everywhere. Baskets of milked pods, stalks that were being turned into ropes, pods that had been lain open to dry the seeds within out, dirt and dirt and more dirt… This place needed to be burnt to the ground, just like Miroku's stinking house. He saw the woman Miroku mentioned, Hikari, lying on the floor, sleeping deeply. He bent down and roused her. When she first woke up, she screamed and threatened him with one of the rusty blades.

"Wait, Hikari, please calm down!" He did not draw Tetsusaiga and he tried to not look menacing.

"W-w-what do you want with me you filthy demon?" she stammered. "How do you know my n-name?"

"Listen, I know you don't know me, but I know you. I have a message for you that comes from Buddha himself."

"What is this some kind of joke?" She held the short blade out in front of her in a hand that trembled so badly she could not have hit her mark even if she'd wanted to.

"Look, do you really think I would come in here and bother to talk to you if I was going to kill or rape you? I'm telling the truth here, I was sent by a friend of mine who is good friends with Buddha. Like _the_ Buddha. He told me to tell you to seek out another demon named Ginta and-"

"Ginta? You've seen my Ginta?" Her face suddenly looked relieved.

InuYasha cocked his head. "You know him?"

"Why yes! He saved my life when I was about twelve years old." She told him that she had nearly drowned one day when she was doing some laundry near the river by her old village. She said he'd saved her from drowning, and gave her a rock that was special to him to remember him by. She removed the rock from a pocket near her hip. It was an ordinary river stone that had his kanji carved into it. "I never saw him again. I always wanted to thank him properly for what he had done for me that day."

"I know where he is, and Buddha wants you to find him. Are you able to walk for a distance?" She said she was, and that she would do whatever it took to get to her Ginta. She only hoped he remembered her. InuYasha told her exactly where to find Koga's pack, saying, "If you get close but still aren't sure, look for the whirlwind, that will be Koga, and Ginta and his friend Hakkaku will be behind him." She packed up enough food for three days, just in case, and set off, leaving the hut empty and completely abandoned. He rummaged through the stuff inside. There was some coins lying around, and a few interesting pieces of jewelry and trinkets. Then he spied the bag that Miroku instructed him to get. He peered inside. In it were all of Sango's throwing stars that Totosai had made for her, and then he found a small brass mirror. Finding this to be a strange item inside the bag, he almost pulled it out and tossed it. But he decided that since he'd got what Miroku had told him to get, he better get the flowers and go on to Sango. He didn't know if she was going to be dying when he got there or if she had to do something and then she would die. All he knew was Miroku seemed to think it was going to be close on time no matter when InuYasha showed up at the cave. He turned to leave, and then decided this place was tainted with an evil poison and that it needed to be destroyed. He withdrew Tetsusaiga and leveled the farm with his Kaze no Kizu, being sure that this ground would never be used for this evil purpose ever again.

Looking very much like an apologetic husband with a bouquet of flowers and a gift for his angry wife, InuYasha was able to pick up Sango's scent near the farm from her frequent visits to get more of the "medicine". He found her trail easily and went on to be with her. He found the cave just after midday. It was dark and shaded here from the mountain bearing down overhead. The air was brisk here, and he knew he was in the right place because of the almost overpowering wolf odor outside the entrance. He saw Sango, lying on her back near a dying fire. He went to her and she fluttered awake.

"Inu…InuYasha?" She looked worse than the last time he'd seen her. "What are you doing here?" She sat up slowly, wincing all the while. "Have you seen Ginta? I want to apologize to him before I go."

 _So she knows she's going._ InuYasha scented that there was no trace of the poison in her blood now, that she was cleaned up inside. "Ginta's got something very important to do Sango. I haven't seen him."

"Oh that's right." She sounded like she was in a trance or half asleep. "He told me someone was coming with a gift for me, but he didn't say who." She must be talking about Miroku.

InuYasha handed her the bouquet of poppies that he had taken from the poison farm. Her eyes widened as she knew what it meant. "InuYasha. Look at how lovely they are. Their beauty on the outside is so great that it conceals the ugliness inside. Miroku said that I was this very thing when I was under its spell." The crimson blooms were bold and vivid, and she held them to her bosom. "I had poisoned Ginta. I was no better than this foul plant."

InuYasha gazed at her. She had a steady stream of tears on each cheek. She rose and ducked into the darkness of the cavern, and then returned with a pile of the pills in her hand. InuYasha meant to grab them from her, but she took them all in one big gulp. _What!_ his mind screamed out. _She just got clear of that poisonous crap, now he wants her to take a shitload of it?_ She saw his reaction and said calmly, "He said this would be the easiest way, InuYasha. He said I will feel no pain, and I'll just stop breathing."

InuYasha couldn't believe he was going to sit here and just watch her die. He didn't care if Miroku had foreseen it or not. What kind of a man would he be if he just didn't do anything?

"He says to show me what's in the bag." She was sitting and smiling, as if nothing at all was wrong with what she'd just done. He reluctantly opened the bag and showed her the throwing stars. "Oh wonderful! I thought they would be lost forever! I want to divide them up between you, Shippo and Kohaku. They are very, very fine quality as you can see." Next he pulled out the brass mirror, and her jaw dropped. She began to cry as she held it to her chest.

"What is it, Sango?" he asked quietly.

She sobbed as she handed it to him. On the back was written "Time, mountains, river, sea, nothing will stand between you and me. When heaven beckons and one shall fall, the other will follow their lover's call." Below that was Sango and Miroku's kanji; it had been a wedding present from Mushin, the man who raised Miroku after his father died. She kept it with her when they would go exorcizing demons in the early days of their marriage. It had been stolen and she thought it was gone forever. Now it seemed whoever stole it must have traded it for some of the evil medicine that Haru and Jiro grew on their miserable plot of land. InuYasha gave it back to her, and she now laid back on the ground. She was feeling very tired now.

"I want you… to give this to… Rin and Shippo." She sounded very out of breath. "Miroku said… it was a present to us… and so it shall be… a present again." InuYasha stowed the mirror back in the pouch with the throwing stars. He knew her time was coming close now. He sat beside her and brushed her hair out of her face as she continued her labored breathing.

"If I could breathe… I'd try… to have you." She smiled weakly at him. "That fire… inside. It burns… so hot. It cries… to be... put out." She was referring to the burning hot desire that now laid in the very pit of her belly. "I'm… so glad… I don't… want to do it… anymore now."

She began to cry silently as she closed her eyes. He remembered that Miroku had told him to tell her that the gifts were from him when she started closing them, and so he did. "I know. I'm… not scared. I'm ready." InuYasha was crying now. Her breaths were coming shallower and further apart. She opened her pretty brown eyes and looked to the flowers he'd brought her. Her fingers flexed open and closed, meaning she wanted them in her hands. InuYasha placed them there in her fingers, and she smiled sweetly at him. She mouthed _Don't cry_ to him, but that made it worse. She chuckled silently and then mouthed _You never would listen._ Finally she drew in a ragged breath, held it for what seemed to be a long time, and then exhaled it slowly, as InuYasha heard the last beat her heart ever made. Her eyes slowly closed, and her head lolled to one side. It was over. InuYasha took her body in his arms and sobbed into her hair. After a time, he was overcome with peace, no doubt with a little help from beyond the grave.

He laid her on her back as straight as he could, then wrapped her in the sheet Kaede had given him. He hadn't realized until he got headed back towards home how close he really had been to Edo. It didn't take him but a quick ten minutes to return her to her body to the village she called home. Rin and Shippo were ready for her at Kaede's, and then InuYasha made his way up to the hill to build another pyre, this time with wood he'd been stocking up there for the past three days in anticipation. It didn't take him long at all.

When he came home, Sango and Miroku's children were all three sitting in a circle, holding hands and chanting. Kagome sat with a quiet infant in each arm as InuYasha sat down beside her. They watched the children summon up another vision between them, one where Sango and Miroku now stood on the flowered hillside, holding Ashoka between them.

"Everyone! We have a wonderful surprise for you! It is imperative that you listen carefully though!" Miroku called out. "Gather everyone, you seven here now, Rin and Shippo, Kohaku, Sesshomaru, and Kaede, I'll even send for Koga, Ginta, Hakkaku and Hikari, and meet up in the cave where Sango died. I wish I could tell you what it is, but Buddha says I can't. Please trust me, and we will see you there at midnight."

"I can't wait to hold my babies again. I look forward to seeing all of you soon!" Sango called.

"Wait!" InuYasha yelled. "Isn't it a little short notice to send for Sesshomaru? Will he make it in time?"

"Oh, don't worry about that hard case, I took care of that already," Miroku snickered.

Kagome and InuYasha looked at each other as the vision began to fade. What the heck did these two have planned for all of them? Their thoughts were quickly overcome by the sounds of happy children, all kinds of excited at the prospect of seeing their parents again, and so they sang happy songs when they went up to Sango's pyre, whom hardly no one came to see, thinking she was the one who caused Miroku's death. Darkness drew over the land, and the full moon made it easy for them to find their way to the cave. Then they all set out together from Edo for the mountains, awaiting nervously for what Miroku had planned for them next.

* * *

Lyrics to _Fly to the Angels_ property of Slaughter

Now you've got to fly high  
Fly to the angels  
Heaven awaits your heart  
And flowers bloom in your name

You've got to fly  
Fly to the angels  
All the stars in the night  
Shine in your name


	12. In the Light

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. ****

* * *

Lyrics to _In My Life_ property of the Beatles

There are places I'll remember  
All my life though some have changed  
Some forever, not for better  
Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments  
With lovers and friends I still can recall  
Some are dead and some are living  
In my life I've loved them all

* * *

Sesshomaru was running flat out, practically tearing through this never ending black forest at a breakneck speed. He was breathing hard, unusual for him. It seemed he couldn't make himself change into his energy ball, and he was hurtling through the thick woods on foot, running away… from his father.

"MY BOY!" he boomed through the night air. "WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF ME?" The InoTashio's voice was thunderously loud, and it seemed the very air rippled with every syllable he spoke. Sesshomaru dashed on ahead, spying what appeared to be a large hollow tree trunk. He ducked inside, heart racing as he covered his mouth and tried to silence the sound his harsh breaths made. His golden eyes were wide with fear.

His father, a man he vowed he would replace, had scared the living daylights out of him when he loomed out of the night clouds. The demon had grown fifty times larger than he had been in life, and he snickered as he said to his son, "AHH, I SEE YOU ARE STILL AS INSIGNIFICANT AS THE DAY I LEFT YOU. DAMN FOOL, YOU'VE LEARNED NOTHING, HAVE YOU?" Despite being scared out of his mind, he simply drew Bakusaiga and prepared to fight this overgrown entity that only looked like his father. And then something interesting began to dawn on Sesshomaru. Every attack he made did absolutely nothing to phase this father phantom. He dodged the attacks with ease, or even let them hit him with what appeared to be mosquito bite strength. The towering vision of the daiyokai was simply unbeatable. Sesshomaru finally stopped. He glared up at him. "What have you returned for Father?" he growled. "Surely you are visiting the wrong son."

"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT I TOLD YOU ALL THOSE YEARS AGO?"

"You told me many things years ago. I've done my best to forget every word unfortunately." His voice was calm, cold. "You abandoned my mother and I. There is no place for me in your black heart."

The monstrously large demon knelt and put his huge face in front of Sesshomaru. "DON'T YOU HAVE SOMEONE TO PROTECT, BOY?"

His mind immediately flashed to Rin. He saw her in his mind as he stared at his father's face. He saw her pretty black hair spilling down her back, her pretty brown eyes that found happiness in every thing that ever happened. He was upset when she was crying at Miroku's funeral pyre; she rarely cried, and it touched him deeply in his icy heart. Her strong and healthy gait as she helped carry a bushel of vegetables or one of the many children in the village, her crooked smile that never stopped beaming… Yes, he had someone to protect, even though she had chose the fiery little kitsune as her mate, he still felt the need to protect and watch over her. Koga would have understood. And deep down Sesshomaru kinda liked Shippo, even though he was a little too much like InuYasha these days.

And then his mind flashed to Kohaku, whom he wanted to slaughter until he learned that Naraku was controlling him. He had guided this boy into becoming a powerful slayer, as his sister had once been. He was easily the best human warrior in all of Japan, and his heart swelled with pride for him. He meant so much to Sesshomaru that he promised his daughter to him in marriage. Even though that would not be happening now that she had chose Shippo as her lifelong mate, Kohaku was not worried about it. Sesshomaru saw this as a strength to his military side and was proud of him.

"Yes, father. I have someone to protect. But I don't understand what this has to do with anything." He bravely held his gaze. "Can you please enlighten me as to your presence here?"

The InuTashio laughed loudly. It shook the very castle foundations. "MY SON, IF YOU ARE TO PROTECT THOSE CHILDREN, THOSE _HUMAN_ CHILDREN, YOU BEST ROLL YOUR POMPOUS ASS OUT OF THAT BED! THEY BOTH ARE GOING TO BE LEAVING SOON AND YOU ARE TO LEAVE WITH THEM."

Sesshomaru looked confused for a moment. "Where are they going, and why are we leaving?"

"YOU ASK TOO MANY QUESTIONS SON!" He rose again to his full height, and reached his hand down as if to grab Sesshomaru. He dodged the gargantuan hand easily and jumped lightly off the edge of the palace balcony and into the undergrowth below. He began to run, and that is when he spied the tree and hid there.

"I WILL FIND YOU SESS. I WILL FIND YOU AND MURDER YOU MYSELF IF YOU DO NOT GO TO EDO THIS VERY MOMENT." He quietly listened for the sounds of his oldest son, smelling the wind. "I KNOW YOU'RE CLOSE, I CAN SMELL YOUR FEAR."

As if Sesshomaru had been reduced to his younger self, the age he was when his father had left him to save Izayoi and InuYasha, he drew his knees to his chest and shook with fear. His bastard old man was going to kill him after all. Suddenly the tree groaned and cracked as he felt himself being lifted, tree and all, into the night air. He felt himself go sideways as the tree was shaken vigorously. He felt himself falling out of the hole he'd leaped into and into his father's calloused hand.

"HEHEHE… I KNEW I'D FIND YOU! NOW, I ASK YOU AGAIN SESS…"

" ** _DON'T YOU HAVE SOMEONE TO PROTECT?"_**

Sesshomaru felt his ears pop as his father roared in his face. Tears streaming down his frightened cheeks, he positively quaked with fear. "Yes! I do!"

"What is her name?" the InuTashio asked in a much quieter and calmer voice, entirely opposite of how he had growled just moments ago.

"Rin," Sesshomaru sobbed. "Her name is Rin."

"And what does she mean to you boy?"

He cried softly into his hands. "She is as much my child as if she had been born of my seed."

"And do you love her?"

"With all my very soul. I would do anything for her." He was not shaking anymore, but he was still sobbing quite loudly.

"And what of the boy, Kohaku?"

"He is the same. My son from another parentage."

The InuTashio set Sesshomaru on the ground gently, and then shrunk to his old size with a trembling and rumbling quickness. "My son, you must go with them on a journey. I was sent here to you in this violent manner by a friend of yours. He is speaking to all of us from beyond his grave." He put his hand out to grasp Sesshomaru's shoulder. "Son, I'm sorry I had to do it this way, but your heart needed to be melted. It is time to put this palace and this battle hardened bullshit behind you now. You have suffered long enough. I give you the gift of peace and happiness, something you never had before."

He turned to leave as Sesshomaru got himself under control. As he was walking away he said, "I'm sorry I had to leave you and your mother the way I did, but it was all written in the stars for it to happen that way. Don't ever think for a moment that I never loved you." He turned and faced Sesshomaru once more, as he slowly faded into the night.

"Don't waste your time keeping up your exterior. Let your guard down and find the love and happiness you deserve. Love your children and their families; love your brother and his family. Supreme conquest is not what you were made for. A heart is made to love, and you should use it for its proper purpose."

Sesshomaru sat straight up in his bed, sweat soaking his hairline and dripping from his nose and chin. His bare chest glistened in the light of the afternoon sun with the sheen of his frenzied perspiration, and his breath was shallow and ragged. He had been napping out on the palace balcony. He looked down at his knees and saw there was dirt there from when he crawled into the tree trunk in his nightmare. He yanked the light sheet from the bed and wiped his face on it. He roared for one his servants to bring him his clothing and his armor and to send for Jakken. He dressed himself and was just putting the cuirass on when the little green retainer came bumbling in.

"Yes my Lord?"

"I am going to be leaving this palace. I want you to turn it into an orphanage."

Jakken's beady yellow toad eyes nearly popped from his head. "Excuse me?"

"Rin and Kohaku are going somewhere far away and I must follow them. I am abandoning my title here. This palace is plenty large enough to hold many children. Children like our Rin who at one time was hurt and lost and all alone in this world. I want you to take the servant women and gather as many abandoned children as you can and bring them here. Give them clothes to wear and food to eat, keep them warm and dry and safe."

Jakken looked as if he were going to faint. "What's wrong my Lord? Are you feeling well?"

"I am not the person I was Jakken. I was wrong. Now I must make this a home full of love rather than the fortress of hate that it was." He smiled down at the imp, who cringed at the sight of it, and he actually laughed. "I forgot that people say when I smile someone is going to die. Forget all that now Jakken. I've changed. Now when I smile people will live."

He had finished dressing and now tied his swords to his hip. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you Jakken. You've been a loyal and faithful servant. Remember how I used to treat you, and don't ever allow anyone to treat anyone else that way. Use whatever funds necessary to make this a haven for those children. There is plenty to last for a long time. Past that, I leave it all in your hands." He strode out to the balcony and gathered his energy to take flight.

"Wait my Lord!" Jakken cried out, running to where his master stood. "Will I never see our Rin or Kohaku again?"

Sesshomaru knelt down and patted him on the arm. "I'm afraid not Jakken. I don't believe there's any time for them to come back here, and you need to get started on converting the palace." Tears shown in Jakken's eyes. "I will tell them you said goodbye. If we can come back we will." Sesshomaru reached inside his juban and pulled a necklace from around his neck. On it was a pearl disc with a cherry blossom engraved on it, and a brass disc with a scythe engraved on it. "Here, you take these. One is Rin and the other is Kohaku. You wear it now until we can return."

Jakken had never been given anything by the Lord of the Western Lands, except of course orders and the staff of two heads. He took the charms with great reverence and placed them around his neck. He clutched the little discs tightly as Sesshomaru bid him farewell. He took to the air and waved. His heart was light as he headed into Edo, looking forward to seeing the people he once only tolerated through new eyes. He was eager to see his precious newborn nieces, his devil-may-care brother, and of course to see his own children, his Rin and Kohaku. The little girl had been raised without much love given to her, and he was going to make up for it, no matter how long it took. And he was going to treat Kohaku with the respect he deserved and apologize to InuYasha; he hoped they all would be able to forgive him for being an ass for all these years. He soared on through the autumn sky, feeling the sun warming and thawing his cold heart with every mile closer to Edo he got.

* * *

Koga had been having some really disturbing dreams as of late. He kept seeing the monk holding a baby. And the monk was telling him to do the stupidest thing: go back to the cave that they stayed in when Ginta marked Sango. Despite not wanting to go, he felt compelled to go there, as if the wind were blowing him in that very direction.

Ginta had rejoined them three days ago, much to Koga's disappointment. There had nearly been a fight to the death that day.

"You fucking just left her there?" Koga roared at him.

Ginta's little bout of independence from Koga's orders made him a little defiant to the wolf demon tribe's leader. "Yeah, because it was what I had to fucking do Koga! You couldn't understand what happened up there!"

Koga lunged at him. Ginta took a right hook to his jaw, and he laid back in the dirt glaring at his leader. "You don't know all the details. It has nothing to do with you."

"I know I would never abandon my mate for any fucking reason, never! You were the lucky one remember? Me and Hakkaku are still dreaming of our women, still jerking off in the woods while you had yours in your bed!" He voice dripped with jealousy and envy. "If Kagome was mine there was no way I'd ever turn my back on her, especially if she was crying!"

Ginta, who had been training right alongside Sango for about a month, quickly sprang to his feet and faked an uppercut, then roundhouse kicked him in the neck, dropping Koga like a rock. "Damn it Koga! You don't fucking understand! She didn't love me!"

Koga rolled and then speared him in the stomach with his shoulder. He straddled Ginta as he punched him in the face over and over again. Ginta finally grabbed one of his wrists and clamped down on it, breaking the bones there. He sat straight up and head butted him and then rolled him off to the side, standing up and kicking him square in the ribs three times before Hakkaku finally got between them.

"It doesn't matter," Koga croaked. "She is your mate. You are bound by your mark that can only be undone by death." He spit at him. "You make me so fucking sick, Ginta. I can't even stand to look at you."

"You son of a bitch, you have no idea what kind of hell was going on in that forsaken cave. She only loved me because of the fucking pills man! Don't you think if she was rid of that poison that she would have gone home to Miroku? Where her children were?" He spit out a tooth that Koga knocked loose. It would grow back overnight.

"Are you insane? I heard her beg you to sink your teeth into her, I smelled your scent spike as you did it! You can't tell me there was nothing there when it happened!" Koga winced as he put his hand to his side where Ginta had kicked and broke two of his ribs. "She wasn't totally oblivious to you Ginta. She felt _something_."

"Koga," he began as he crouched down, rubbing his face, "Sango didn't belong with me anymore than you belong with Hakkaku." Hakkaku grimaced at the thought of that. "She was never mine, and I made a mistake. Do you know it took her until just a few days ago to tell me she loved me? And she was in the middle of riding me when she said it. Just more words that came out during her delirium. She never freely embraced me, I had to hug her first. She never wanted to kiss me unless she had taken that medicine… Trust me Koga, it was a completely one sided relationship."

He stuck his hand out to help Koga to his feet. "Let's not argue about this. As heartbreaking as it was, I still feel I did the right thing."

"Well," Koga said, "I think you should still go to her and explain what's happening instead of just leaving her on her own. You owe her that much." Ginta agreed with him and that was the night he saw she was trying to get the poison out of her system. He left her some azaleas outside the cave entrance, hoping she would find them and know he was sorry for leaving her.

The next day none of them spoke. They were getting closer and closer to the cave, which was pissing Ginta off. He told Koga that if when they got there it was some kind of trick to get him back with his mate he was going to take Sango's katana and commit hari kiri right there. "Don't worry Ginta, I think there's something going on here that's deeper and much more important than that."

Still not sure that it wasn't a trick, he left the group to go out hunting on his own. He found nothing but a scrawny deer, but he ate it and then slowly made his way back the where Hakkaku and Koga rested. He sat down on a boulder with them and dozed lightly. Suddenly the whole pack awoke as they heard a shuffle in the brush. It sounded bigger than the scrawny deer from earlier. They held their noses to the wind, trying to scent out what it was. Ginta recognized the smell of the poison almost immediately and thought it was Sango, and so he ran to the sound with Koga and the rest of the pack close behind.

"Ginta!" Hikari called. She was sure that she was close; the whirlwind had ended in this outcropping about twenty minutes ago and hadn't resumed. Surely she was close.

The pack looked at Ginta when they heard a female voice that none of them recognized. He shrugged, and then they picked up that strange smell and traced it to its source. She had a walking stick and a furoshiki on her back, a badly worn kimono and zori sandals that had been repaired many, many times. Her hair was braided down her back, a deep chocolate brown color to match her eyes; both looked tired and unhealthy. Her skin was dirty and bruised and pale. This woman had seen better days. She looked up as she took a deep breath to call out again, and then she saw him.

"Ginta! I thought I'd never see you again!" She walked to him briskly; the undergrowth here was too thick for her to run to him as she wanted to. Koga and Hakkaku looked at Ginta. He was looking at her with eyes that were trying to remember, and he seemed to be years away in thought.

She reached him and embraced him. He looked down at the top of her head, trying to place her. She pulled back and told him how she'd never given up hope that they would find each other again, and then saw his eyes, searching for something to ring a bell inside his dusty mind. "You don't remember me do you?" she asked quietly.

"Honestly miss, I do not. Please remind me of our acquaintance." His voice was gentle and calm. She told him the same story she told to InuYasha, about how when she was still a young girl she had nearly fallen in the river and drowned while doing laundry. She told him how he saved her life, even though Hakkaku didn't want him to stop. At that time Koga still had the shards in his legs and he was many times faster on the ground than they were, and Hakkaku didn't want to be left behind. She thanked him, but he was in a hurry, and so he gave her a rock to remember him by, and she produced it now, much to his wide eyed surprise.

"Oh yes!" he exclaimed. "How could I ever forget you?" He took the rock and examined it. "I had forgotten all about this. My mother had it made for me when I started running with Koga and Hakkaku." He felt how worn it was, as if she'd used it as a worry stone. He gave it back to her. "You've had for longer than I did, so it now belongs to you Hikari."

"Ginta, I have been tracking you down ever since I was old enough to journey on my own. I wanted to properly thank you for saving my life that day. I'm afraid I don't have anything to give you though," she gulped. "The only thing I have left to give is my heart."

Ginta's eyes widened. "You mean, you've been looking for me for years because… because you wanted to thank me? I did the right thing, there's no need for thanks." She turned her head, obviously blushing because she had hoped he would catch the drift: she was in love with him. When she turned, Ginta thought she suddenly looked familiar, somethign about how the side of her face looked, and asked, "Hey, did you work at that farm? The one where the joy plant extract came from?"

"Yes." She looked ashamed.

"I thought I saw you there. That place was poisonous."

She nodded. "Those men… they were awful to me, and yet I stayed, because the poison was so good." Her face was red with shame, recalling how they had used and abused her body and spirit, all so she could get a taste of the dreg quality pills, to be able to forget about her seemingly pointless mission to find Ginta, even for just a little while.

Ginta nodded. "I know. I was poisoned too. So was my mate." He looked in the direction of the cave he shared with Sango. "I am sure she is free of it now, but she was poisoned much more than I was."

Hikari shivered a little. _His mate? Why was I sent here if he's got a mate?_ she wondered to herself. "I don't think we have to worry about the poison anymore," she said as she walked with them back to the outcropping. "A demon came and destroyed the farm."

"A _demon_?" Koga said. "What kind of demon?"

"He kinda looked like a dog. He had dog ears and red clothing, pretty amber eyes. Why?"

Koga only knew one mutt in the whole wide world that fit that description. "What in the blue fuck was InuYasha doing at that farm? He would never take that poison, and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to just go plunder someone's farm and then destroy it, although I could be wrong."

Hikari said, "Oh, no it was nothing like that. He was on a mission. He said he had a message for me, a message from Buddha himself. I told him I didn't believe him, but then he said I was to set out from there and find Ginta. He seemed surprised that I knew you."

Koga scratched his head. This was getting weirder and weirder. First Miroku keeps telling him he has to be at that cave by midnight tomorrow night, and now this woman shows up saying InuYasha gave her a message from Buddha to find Ginta. "Something big is going to happen." He looked at the others in his party, including Hikari in with them. "There's great work to be done in this cave, I think it would be prudent if we started walking again."

They all stood ready to go, and Ginta said to Hikari, "Are you able to run?"

"I would run with you anywhere Ginta." Her eyes shone with love for him, finally reunited with the man she owed her life to. Ginta felt the first flutters of butterflies in his stomach. Sango never looked at him like that unless she was nearly spent from their hours of love making. Here stood this woman, a broken image of her former self, and she was trying to convey all of her feelings for him in a single gaze.

Koga was right; something big was going to happen. Ginta could feel it as he grasped her calloused hand in his and they took off behind Koga and Hakkaku. The next day they reached the cave.

* * *

"Sesshomaru?" InuYasha said as he nearly dropped his rice bowl. He simply could not believe what he was hearing and seeing. The daiyokai had fallen on his knees before InuYasha and was apologizing, rather profusely, for nearly every single thing he'd done to him. Miroku's children ran to the Lord of the Western Lands when he landed in the yard, something they'd never done before. Evidently this was something Miroku and Buddha had their fingers in.

"InuYasha, really, I am quite sorry for the vileness I have displayed to you your entire life. I beg your forgiveness." His head hung down in submission, defeat. InuYasha thought he heard a sniffle. _No way. There's no way he's crying right now._

"He forgives you Oji-sama! Papa said he has to!" Shinju knelt beside the bowing and humbled Lord. She pulled his curtain of hair back from his face and smiled up at him. "Papa said it's ok now. You can get up!" He smiled at her with tears in his eyes. He thought of Rin, and how she must have been very much like this little girl in front of him now. He wiped his eyes and then hugged her. He could feel her spiritual power emanating from her tiny body, flaring and flexing gently against his own powerful youki.

In that moment, InuYasha witnessed the melting of Sesshomaru's cold heart before his very eyes. He embraced the fiery Shinju and the diminutive Izumi in one big arm, and then Kichirou came running as well. Sesshomaru kissed them all with now gentle lips, and felt the first feelings of what real love felt like in his quickly warming heart. Izumi raised up on her toes and kissed his striped cheek with her child-like reverence and broke free from him. "Oji-sama, Papa says you must go to Rin and make amends with Shippo. We will go with you." She was beaming at him. He gathered the children up in his mokomoko and strapped them securely to his back, careful not to let his spiked pauldron touch them.

InuYasha stood and addressed him. "Sesshomaru." His brother turned to him. "I understand it must be very new to you to hear nice things, especially from me, but know that I do accept your apology. I'm happy for you, you bastard." He smiled as he called Sesshomaru that horrible name now out of endearment.

"Thank you. I appreciate it, half-breed," smiling as he returned the sentiment. He glided out the door and went to find his daughter. She was with Shippo in a field just outside of Edo, gathering more flowers as they prepared to burn Sango's body that evening. Shippo saw him coming and jumped behind Rin. She giggled and rose to meet her father. She spied the children on his back and said, "What's this? My Lord brings my wards to me?" She always spoke very formally to him.

"Rin, I have something to give you." His eyes were shining again, and he gently took her into his arms. She looked surprised, but felt herself reaching around him slowly, returning this affectionate embrace. He held her that way for a while as he searched for the words he wanted to say to her. She closed her eyes and relished this display of public affection that she never thought she would experience. Suddenly she felt him squeeze her tighter as he started to fall apart in her arms. "I'm so sorry my child. I have been the most terrible father to you." All she could see was the silvery white of his hair around them as he whispered into her ear, "I loved you more than I loved myself. But I lacked the courage to tell you or show you. If anything had ever happened to you while we were out on Naraku's trail… I would have flung myself into hell without waiting for my death." Now it was she who uttered a quiet cry. What had happened to him? She didn't understand why this was coming out so suddenly, but deep in her heart she was so relieved that he was telling her what she already knew to be true.

"Rin, you are my little girl, as much as if you'd been born to me. I love you for breaking the ice in my veins all those years ago, and I love you for the woman you've grown into. Please forgive me for being the hard ass that you've always known. I was in darkness for a long time, and I have now stepped into the light. Forgive me." He was sobbing into her dark tresses. The girls on his back were gently rubbing his shoulders, encouraging the flood of emotion to leave his body. Kichirou laid his head against the lord's back and patted him softly.

"Father," she said as she cried into his chest, "I forgive you. I know you cut yourself off from your feelings to do what you had to concerning Naraku. I don't hold it against you." She pulled away and wiped her eyes, and then gazed into his face and said, "Father, I love you."

Shippo watched in awe of what was taking place before him. Sesshomaru's tears sparkled in Rin's hair, making it look as she had diamonds there. He couldn't believe what he heard come out of the man who had threatened his life just only days ago. This Sesshomaru that stood before him now, had transformed into a compassionate and decent, albeit weeping, person. Shippo thought back to what InuYasha said, about Miroku and Buddha meddling with things on this side to achieve some greater goal that would become clear tonight in the cave. He felt a small smile bloom on his lips. _Thanks Miroku_ , he thought. _This was one change we all definitely needed_.

Sesshomaru backed away from Rin and faced Shippo. "Kitsune, I know you have powerful hearing. I know you heard what I said to her." He dried his tears on the sleeve of his kimono. "I apologize to you as well for trying to kill you the day my nieces were born. I know you love Rin as much as I do and will protect her with your very life." Shippo could only nod, not able to find any words in his throat.

"But it seems that in addition to giving you an apology I should congratulate you. It seems you have made me a grandfather." Shippo's eyes all but burst from his skull. Rin gasped as her hands flew to her lower abdomen. Sesshomaru laughed lightly and easily. "Surely you didn't think you could prevent it? She carries your scent in her all the time, Shippo. I know how often you've paired with her."

"A-a-and.. you didn't murder me? You knew but didn't kill me?" Shippo had backed away from Sesshomaru, expecting fully to be taken down by the energy whip at any second, thinking all this had been for show to lure Rin away from protecting him.

"I knew it made her happy, and at that time, I didn't mind as long as you didn't mark her. I thought it was good for her to have some previous experience in this area of knowledge before committing herself to Kohaku." He shook his head, knowing now how stupid it was to force his little girl to be with someone she had no interest in. "I see now that I could never choose the perfect mate for Rin, and I should have trusted her judgment from the beginning. Granted," he sighed, "I feel you both are a bit young, especially you," he looked at Shippo with a grin. "Too much time around the monk I imagine."

Shippo turned red and looked at his foxy feet. "Yeah, I guess you could say he was a great influence," as he remembered asking Miroku all kinds of questions before he actually laid with Rin their first time. And then Miroku had given him all kinds of pointers and advice that Shippo didn't know he needed, but definitely proved useful.

"Come here Shippo," Sesshomaru said. Shippo walked slowly to his father-in-law, afraid that what was happening here was still a horrible trap, and he would soon be dead. Sesshomaru towered over him. Despite Shippo's considerable height growth, Sesshomaru still had approximately three feet on him. Sesshomaru extended his hand to him, and Shippo reached up, grasping the magenta striped wrist as Sesshomaru grasped his entire forearm in his big hand. "I entrust my daughter into your care. She is now yours entirely."

The Inu no Tashio of the Western Lands felt the hands of the children on his back. Shinju was grinning fiercely; Izumi was weeping happy tears. In unison, the oracle twins said, "Oji-sama, Papa says it's time for you to see Kagome and the pups." One voice was elated beyond belief, the other wavering with emotion; the two that were one.

Sesshomaru continued his journey of atonement throughout the village, apologizing to everyone he had spoken ill to or even glared at in passing. When he was through, he sat outside InuYasha's house, sharing his first smoke with his little brother. They watched Kohaku come in on Kirara's back, just before Sango's remains were to be set ablaze. This was the last one he had to meet with. His son, also from different parents. Sesshomaru coughed as he handed the kiseru back to InuYasha, rose and began walking up the hill.

Kohaku was holding up rather well. There was no sign of sadness in his eyes or on his face, no scent of tears anywhere on him. His muscular body seemed to be about to split the hide that covered it. There was no surface on him that was not toned and tight. The jade green parts of his slayers uniform had been traded in for black ones, and the amber spaulders and cops had been traded for fine steel ones. He looked like an armored ninja. He landed on the hill, spending some time alone with his sister's body before the procession would come. He laid a gathering of camellia flowers on her chest, and sighed. His hardened heart and mind could not allow himself to feel the sorrow that should be coming out of him. His only living sibling lie on her funeral pyre, but all he felt was irritation at having to come back to Edo after only a few days. After he made his offer of flowers to her memory, he made to mount Kirara again, but then he saw Sesshomaru coming towards him.

"Good evening my Lord." He was formal as well. It was how Sesshomaru had taught his children to be.

"Kohaku." He strode towards him. He had removed the pauldron and the cuirass. He looked odd without his armor on, and to his warrior son, he looked insanely underdressed.

"My Lord, are you well? You look unprotected." Kohaku's posture was perfect and balanced as he stood waiting for an answer from his Lord.

"Son, we must talk."

Kohaku's eyes remained calm and steady, but inside him his heartbeat accelerated. Sesshomaru had called him many things, but never son. He felt a memory tickling at the back of his mind, seeming to awaken with the ever growing feeling of déjà vu.

"I have failed you Kohaku."

Finally Kohaku's stoic face broke. His eyes were wide, and he stared disbelievingly at Sesshomaru. "No, you've done no such thing my Lord." Kohaku never called Sesshomaru father, as Rin did. It wasn't that he didn't feel that Sesshomaru had definitely taken his father's place as far as male guidance, he just felt it was improper to address him in that non-formal way.

"Yes I have. I have groomed you to be just like myself. I was fired from a crooked mold, and then I pressed you into the same crooked mold. I have had to so some reforming today Kohaku. The man you saw in this body before is now gone, and a much happier and peaceful man has taken his place, trying to right the misdirection my old self had placed upon you."

Kohaku kept feeling that tickle in the back of his brain, like he was supposed to remember something about this moment that it seemed he was reliving. _He's going to embrace me_ he thought. Sesshomaru looked at the body on the pyre. He turned back to Kohaku and stepped to embrace him. A whisper of a voice floated through his mind, ' _He's trying to apologize for turning you into an unfeeling mound of strength, Kohaku._ '

"Kohaku, I'm sorry about your sister's death. I had heard she was terribly ill. It's a shame we've lost such a strong woman. I only wish I could have known her as I am now and not as I was." He let go of Kohaku and looked at him, asking, "Am I too late, boy? Have I killed every emotion you were born with?"

"W-what do you mean, my L-l-ord?" He was visibly shaken by this touching attention being paid to him. "I have trained hard to become this way, y-you said it would make me a powerful warrior if I could silence that part of myself."

Sesshomaru looked down the hill, spying Rin. His heart began to ache thinking that maybe things would not end well between him and Kohaku.

"Yes, I did say that didn't I? Kohaku, I was wrong. Let me tell you the only piece of advice my father gave me that was ever pertinent to my life. Before he left my mother and I for InuYasha and his mother, he asked me once if I had someone to protect. At the time, I was convinced that I was to be a warrior, like yourself. I told him I planned to walk the way of supreme conquest, and had no need of protecting anyone. That question, 'Do you have someone to protect?', would haunt me everyday of my life. It was why I was entrusted Tenseiga instead of Tetsusaiga or S'ounga. I held a grudge against InuYasha ever since he took control over father's other fang… Then when I found Rin, I realized that there was more than the feeling of bitterness and envy. I felt compassion and love for her, but I buried it deep." He looked into Kohaku's eyes. "I felt it made me weak, like it made me vulnerable. It turns out I was severely wrong. She was who I had to protect. And then when I took you into our group, I had to protect you too.

"Kohaku," he put his hand on his shoulder, "you must grieve for your sister. You must not silence that side of yourself anymore. Today my father came to me in a dream. He told me that a heart was meant to love, and that I should use it for its intended purpose. I am asking that you do the same. You can be a warrior and not be an unfeeling hard ass."

His speech over, he looked at Kohaku waiting for some kind of flash of understanding. The demon slayer was lost in thought, finally picking up that tickle. He saw Sesshomaru's father in a dream that mimicked this very moment, whispering on the wind, ' _Learn from your father's mistakes. Don't travel a road he has worn ruts in. Follow him now on a new road._ ' He then heard the voice of his true father, whom he had killed by his own hand when under the control of Naraku. ' _The demon is right, you must never cut your heart out to strengthen your arm._ ' He stood staring calmly at the ground, reeling as he felt the power of the buried dream come to life. He heard the two men's voices repeat themselves over and over, and then heard Sango's musical and feminine one over the din, ' _Kohaku! I LOVE YOU!_ ' It was this last voice that turned Kohaku's petrified and hardened heart back into the warm caring center it had once been.

He shook his head, seeing now how Sesshomaru stood looking deflated. He turned from him and began to walk back down the hill. "I am too late."

"Father! Wait!" The first of a thousand tears slowly traced it's way down his tanned cheek. Sesshomaru stopped in his tracks, hearing his son call him 'father' for the first time. He turned and caught Kohaku as he ran to him, crying into his kimono. The boy had known death all too well, but had never had the chance to mourn for any of his fallen family and comrades. Now years of dammed tears came flooding out, and Sesshomaru patted his adopted son's back.

Sesshomaru laughed low and gentle. "It's funny, I just did this myself not more than a few hours ago. How alike we are, despite not being blood relation." Kohaku laughed a little at that too. It felt so much more natural to stand with Sesshomaru like this than feeling like one of his servants, always watching your step around him. Kohaku felt entirely like his old self again, just like he had picked up his life from before that day he slaughtered everyone he'd ever known. Though it hurt him to think about it, he was happy that he could feel something again. He did not push the tears away as they came. Eventually he felt a calming peace overcome him, and he stood contentedly next to the man who stepped in to be his father.

They stood together at the top of the hill as InuYasha and Shippo came leading the rest of their extended family up to the pyre. It was time. Kaede came and said some prayers over the body. She was about to begin the eulogy when InuYasha stopped her. He was feeling kinda talky tonight.

He looked in front of him. None of the villagers had come up, so he spoke plainly. "We have all been touched by both Miroku and Sango over the past three days. I think we all have had some kind of weird experience that was definitely from beyond this world." The others nodded. He looked at his darling mate, who was cradling Haruko in her arms. Rin stood beside her with Tsukiko over her shoulder. He wondered briefly if even his daughters had sensed the two in their dreams. "We all knew this very gathering was going to happen. I think we should keep this ceremony short. I'm pretty sure they're both waiting for all of us in that cave that she died in, along with Koga's group. So without further ado…" he meant to light the body when Kohaku cried, "Wait!"

InuYasha looked over at him. "Oji, did my sister suffer?" His eyes were red and puffy from crying, and he looked desperate to know how her death happened, even though they more than likely would be seeing her and Miroku again shortly.

"I'm sorry, it didn't occur to me that not everyone knew what happened to her. Well, it's like this," he began. He told them all about how she'd engrossed herself in training non-stop since the day she left Miroku, how she'd fallen asleep on the cliff top and then was given the magic pill that she thought was medicine but was really poison. He left out the gory details of her mating Ginta, but did mention that it was the pills effect that caused her to allow such an atrocity to happen. He then told them how her need of the pill became so much that it began to consume her every waking thought, constantly thinking of when to take it because of the way it made her feel about Ginta, and then constantly wondering when and how to get more. "It turned her inside out, made everything that was nice about her ugly. After Miroku died, she felt herself wanting to rid her body of the poison, which she did. She spent three days in the cave that her and Ginta called home, puking and shaking and getting healthy again. Miroku told me I had to bring her some things to make her at ease enough to do what she needed to do to pass through to heaven. I brought her some of the flowers that the poison came from, bright red flowers called poppies, and the bag of throwing stars and the brass mirror. Before I showed them to her, she took all the pills she had left in her possession in a single swallow." His eyes began to water. "She laid down and just stopped breathing. She tried to tell me not to cry, but I couldn't help it, and she even laughed at me. Then not long after that, she simply stopped breathing. She was in no pain. She said Miroku told her it would be the safest and easiest way for her to go. And so that's what she did. And now here we are. We should torch this shell that housed her feisty spirit and head towards the cave. We have a large number of us that need to get there." Kaede agreed and ended by saying more prayers over the body, and then nodded at InuYasha, and he and Shippo set the pyre alight, only waiting until after the body was fully engulfed before they all set out to InuYasha's house. They crowded into the main room and ate a quick meal, and then set about getting everyone ready for the trek into the wilderness. Bags were packed for the infants and children, and then finally, with the aid of Ah-Un, Kirara, and Sesshomaru's flight form, they all flew into the twilight, into a destiny that had been written on the spinning stars since the beginning of time.


	13. Hole in the Sky

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. ****

* * *

Lyrics to _Come Again_ property of the Damn Yankees

Now I'm falling where I've never been  
My resistance is wearing thin  
Somewhere in the distance  
Like a long lost friend

Here I come again.

Been so long since I've seen you girl  
Swear I've been around the world  
Every room is an empty space  
In the darkness I see your face

* * *

Miroku was kneeling next to her when she became aware of her surroundings. She didn't really wake up, as she wasn't ever asleep. And she didn't really faint or pass out, so she didn't come to, she simply became aware. The pup in his arms cooed happily. Sango sat up, looking down at her body. The tremors and insatiable lust she felt just before she died were all gone now. She felt at peace inside. The exterior of her was supple and healthy looking, no longer pale and clammy. She felt Miroku's presence and she turned to face him.

He smiled at her, sweetly. "Hello my love. I told you it would be easy." She had not yet found her voice, but in the few seconds of silence she heard InuYasha's weeping faintly from the world she had just left. She looked at Miroku with sadness, wanting to soothe their friend. He said, "Oh, about that, let me help…" He closed his eyes and held two fingers up before him, in prayer. After a moment, she heard the cries subside, and heard InuYasha going about what had to be done. She nodded at Miroku in thanks. He smoothed her hair down her back as he knew she loved, and she felt herself take a deep breath.

"I missed you so much my dear husband," she said as she exhaled. Suddenly her eyes went wide. "Is it still there?"

"No, the mating mark has faded. We are together again." He seemed to blush a little when he said that. She wanted nothing more than to take him in her arms and hold him for all of this eternity. He must have been able to read her mind still. "There will be plenty of time for that my love, but not until after we have finished Buddha's work. You must meet with him now. He is expecting you." He helped her to her feet, still carrying InuYasha's child in his other arm.

"Is that really their boy?" she asked as she took a long loving look at the pup. He was simply a perfect baby. He was quiet and calm, beautiful and soft. Miroku handed the infant to her, reminding them both of days when they swapped their own children back and forth between them.

"Yes, it is. He's really something isn't he?" He chuckled a little. "It's hard to believe InuYasha was ever this small and cuddly isn't it?"

The baby opened his eyes and smiled a wide grin, leaving his tiny sharp fangs visible. Sango was almost overcome by his cuteness. His clawed fingers wrapped around hers instinctively. The two of them gazed at him in awe. Suddenly there was a kind of dragging feeling. Miroku looked up and said, "Sango, look at this."

There before them a portal was opening up. They could see into InuYasha's house, and he was sitting with Kagome by his side. Miroku called out to them, "Everyone! We have a wonderful surprise for you! It is imperative that you listen carefully though! Gather everyone, you seven here now, Rin and Shippo, Kohaku, Sesshomaru, and Kaede, I'll even send for Koga, Ginta, Hakkaku and Hikari, and meet up in the cave where Sango died. I wish I could tell you what it is, but Buddha says I can't. Please trust me, and we will see you there at midnight."

Sango felt she had to say something, so she said, "I can't wait to hold my babies again. I look forward to seeing all of you soon!" She had picked up on that mind reading trick that Miroku knew, and now she knew exactly what was going to happen in the cave. She smiled at Miroku, who kissed her gently on the lips. Her eyes lit up, and he knew what she was thinking before she even had a chance to say.

"No my dear. Not until after tonight. And then we can all you want." She seemed satisfied with this response and hooked her arm into his as they went to speak with Buddha.

* * *

The children were all quiet as the group flew in the direction of the cave. It was only a short distance in the air, even at this speed they would make the journey in about twenty minutes. The reformed Sesshomaru had Miroku and Sango's three children strapped safely to his back with his mokomoko. Kaede, Rin and Shippo rode on Ah-Un, InuYasha, Kagome and her twins, and Kohaku rode on Kirara. Miroku's bunch were sleeping soundly, no doubt gathering their energies for what would be happening very soon.

It was so quiet that Sesshomaru broke the silence with a quiet laugh. Everyone turned to look at him. No one was used to hearing him be so easy going, and it was still a shock when he did anything that was even close to normal. "InuYasha, I feel old."

"Why's that?" knowing full well they both had seen over two hundred years of life, well past a human's prime.

"I assumed Rin would have been shouting it from the rooftop. Shippo's impregnated her. I'm going to be a grandfather!"

Everyone turned to look at Rin and Shippo who were trying to hide their faces, obviously embarrassed at the fact that now everyone knew they were having sex, and often enough to induce pregnancy.

"Hey Shippo, way to go! I guess your balls are bigger than I thought." Kagome smacked his head. "What's that for! I didn't think he could make enough juice to get the job done is all!"

"Really, you couldn't have said anything else?" she growled.

"I could've said he must have a lot of steam in that pump to get that juice where it needed to go, seeing how he's got a teeny tiny prick. The whole process must have tired him completely out." Kohaku and Sesshomaru snickered.

She could hear the smirk in his petulant voice. Kagome clamped down on his sensitive ears and said, "If you don't apologize to everyone here for embarrassing yourself and embarrassing Rin and Shippo I am going to rip these off your head."

He gave a fearful "eek" and quickly said, "How rude of me, I'm so sorry for my stupid tongue! What I meant to say was congratulations Rin and Shippo on the impending birth of your first child!" He heaved a sigh of relief as she released him, and then they heard Sesshomaru suddenly laugh heartily. It was an unusual sound, but it was delightful just the same.

"Actually, I was thinking the same thing myself Shippo. How exactly did you manage?"

"SESSHOMARU!" Kagome yelled, scaring Kirara and nearly bucking them all off her back.

He laughed again and said, "My apologies, Shippo. I'm just… ripping on you."

He dropped that formal crap altogether and InuYasha smiled. "I think you're catching on to how it goes, you bastard. You're gonna fit in just fine." The men continued teasing the poor boy, every remark more vulgar than the last. But even Kagome had to crack a smile when she heard Rin giggle at some atrocious comment, and then Shippo said to her, "Oh you just wait, I'll show you how it's really done when we can get ditch the audience."

Soon the landscape below them began to change and all of them spotted the light of a fire coming from within a cave. "That's Koga and the others," InuYasha called. They made their way down through the tree line and landed just outside the mouth of the cave. They could feel an energy in the air that felt supernatural, and it made the atmosphere around them feel charged with electricity, yet heavy with humidity at the same time. The twin oracles and their brother had awoken and even the infants on Kagome's back seemed to be aware of the forces swirling about them. This was definitely going to be big.

Koga rose and met InuYasha outside the cave. "Do you guys feel that?"

"Yeah, I have a feeling this is going to be fucking huge, whatever it is Sango and Miroku have planned." InuYasha helped his wife and kids off the nekomata.

"Wait, Sango and _Miroku_?" Ginta asked. Koga had not told him that Sango had died yet. "Where is she?" he demanded as he searched the faces of the people dismounting, looking for her among the small crowd.

Kagome went to him. "Ginta, I'm afraid the poison was too much for her. She died in this cave this morning."

Ginta closed his eyes and allowed his tears to come. But he was soon feeling better, more of Miroku's magic no doubt. Kagome and InuYasha swapped the tale back and forth of how Sango and Miroku seemed to be at the heart of a huge spiritual undertaking, and that they fully expected to see her again shortly. And almost as if the air itself responded to his sadness, every breath he drew in now seemed to calm him more and more.

Sango and Miroku's powerful children were huddled in a tight little knot, holding hands and chanting softly. Suddenly they stopped and seemed to be conversing with something unseen. Then they all nodded and stood. Shinju started barking out orders at the others. It didn't surprise her Oba and Oji, she was definitely the boss of her siblings.

"Listen everyone, we need to form a circle. Me and Izumi will have to arrange you, but circle up." Everyone present did as they were told. She walked out of the cave and tucked a scrap of paper into Ah-Un's saddle, smacked his butt and sent him back to Jakken. She then found her way to Kirara and told her to follow the two headed beast. When she returned, Izumi had started pulling people from one place in the circle to another, and within a few minutes it was all properly arranged. The lot of them ringed the fire that Koga had built, but it was off center of it on purpose. Kichirou went to the center while Izumi and Shinju took Miroku's staff and jammed it effortlessly into the stone floor. Kichirou grasped it and suddenly the air felt even more full of electricity. The spiritual energy present in the cave had stirred up a gusty wind, blowing around everyone with a heated fervor. Shinju had her father's prayer beads out and wrapped around her wrist, and Izumi had the long set doubled into a long necklace.

"Oba, you need to give the babies to us." Izumi and Shinju held out their arms for the infants. Kagome looked at them with frightened eyes. "Don't worry, they will be safe, but they need to be _inside_ the circle. As you stand now they are outside of it." Reluctantly, she handed Tsukiko to Izumi and Haruko to Shinju, lifting them from out of their onbuhimo. They gingerly laid the infants at Kichirou's feet. Shinju and Izumi scanned the circle being sure they hadn't missed anything. Shinju passed in front of Sesshomaru, stopped and smiled at him. "Your energy is much better than it used to be, Oji-sama." He smiled back at her as she continued her little march around the ring of people. She and Izumi stopped to confer quietly near Kichirou, and then chanted a fast mantra. They were quiet a moment, and then they both nodded and stood. Izumi walked to the far side of the circle and broke in between Ginta and Hikari, while Shinju broke in between Shippo and Rin. They were on opposite sides of the circle with their two year old brother directly in between them, holding their father's staff steady with his body, keeping his body in physical contact with his cousins by touching the sides of his feet to the sides of their bodies. The air was almost too thick to breathe.

"Everyone join hands!" Shinju yelled over the sound of the wind that had begun to rip through the cavern. As soon as all the hands were together, the circle was complete, and they found themselves inside a huge barrier. It swirled purply pink and crackled with an energy that was causing the hair on the back of everyone's neck to rise. As if in a chorus, Shinju, Izumi and Kichirou all started chanting a mantra that was easy to remember and comforting to their ears with its syllable pattern and rhyming nature. Soon everyone felt compelled to chant with the children. The serenity that washed between them all caused them to not even feel that the cave had fallen away from them, and they were all flying in this pod of light. Shinju and Izumi began to chant louder than the rest adding new words as the others continued in the original pattern. They stepped lightly out of the circle, being careful not to release anyone's hands until they completed the circle's outer ring. They now went to the center with Kichirou and the infants, adding mudras to the mantra chant. The pod zipped through time and space, until finally the little girls had stopped their chanting. There was the slightest of bumps as the pod settled on the ground. The others continued chant until the rush of fresh air startled them.

They saw before them the flowered hillside of their dreams and visions that the girls had shown them. The plum tree at the top of the hill was in full bloom, and beneath it sat Sango, Miroku, and Ashoka. At first, everyone was afraid to move. Miroku and Sango's children were what broke this dumbfounded stillness. They went running merrily to their parents on the hill, where they were covered in hugs and kisses. Kagome and InuYasha rushed to gather up their babies, who were no worse for the wear, and in fact seemed to be sleeping more peacefully than ever before. Soon, everyone began to ascend the hillside to meet up with the two spiritual parents who had caused all of this to happen.

"Kagome, InuYasha, come and claim your son." Sango held him out to them as their daughters were quickly passed to Sesshomaru, who took them both on one expansive shoulder. They were overcome with joy at being able to share this first embrace with their son. The boy's face mimicked InuYasha's nearly completely, all except for the eyes, those deep brown eyes that were his mother's. Kagome was nearly crying, but she bit her lip to hold back her tears of joy.

"I'm so glad you all made it here in one piece," Miroku said. "I was not certain if the girls could pull it off." He put his arm around them both. "I should trust Buddha when he says you can handle it." They smiled up at him, happy that they had been mostly responsible in making it all happen. Koga handed the monk his staff after it jangled to the grass once they'd landed here in this new place. "Ahh, thank you, I felt so odd without it."

"Miroku, is this heaven?" Shippo asked.

"Yes, but don't worry, none of you have died. In fact, Buddha has something he wants to tell all of us before we're off to our new homes and lives."

"Wait a second," Koga said with a grumpy tone, "we came here to get new lives? What if I liked the life I had?"

Miroku spoke inside his mind. _Come on Koga. Of all the people on this hillside, I know what happiness you had in your heart. You agonized day and night over your decision to protect Kagome. You will be released from that bondage and find your right place in the world._ He felt himself perk up at the idea of finally not having to choose between his word and his wants.

"Come on, we have to meet with Buddha," Sango said and she pulled gently at Miroku's navy sleeve. "I'm anxious to get a fresh start!" The others may not have been as eager, but this place was certainly peaceful and serene, and it was hard to be afraid or have any reservations about following her, and so they all filed over the hill to meet with the most supreme Buddha.

* * *

"Master Jakken,

I hope this letter finds you well. Buddha has great plans for us but it requires that we leave this world. We have not died. We have been advanced through time. I know you will live a very long time. You will see all of us again in about five hundred years. I know it is a long time to wait but be patient. Take Ah-Un and Kirara to help you find the abandoned children of this world. It will make travel much easier for you. Meet us in five hundred years at midnight on the date of October 10, 2010. Just remember 10-10-10. We will meet you in the place where Edo stood. That spot is sacred to Kagome's family line. Remember, it will be as if we had just left. Good luck with the orphanage. We will see you in five hundred years.

With love,

All of us."

Jakken folded the childlike printed letter into a square and put it next to his body. He sighed, thinking five hundred years was an insufferable amount of time to wait, but he felt it may be worth it. This letter guaranteed he would live at least five hundred more years, and he was given the gift of two flying beasts. He decided he couldn't complain. He patted Ah and Un's muzzles, and stroked Kirara's furry chest. "Alright you two, we'll get started in the morning. We've got a lot to do, so get some rest." The imp walked back inside and found himself soon snoring in Sesshomaru's plush and silky bed, just as the spiritual sisters broke the barrier of time and space and transcended into heaven.

* * *

The motley gathering of people made their way from the top of the hill down into the valley below. It was shrouded in mist and sweet smelling trees. Miroku and Sango walked hand in hand with their children as they wound their way down a paved path. Ashoka had been passed to nearly everyone and now rested in Ginta's arms. He felt relieved that the child he'd once buried was now alive, and was happy and healthy as he should have been. Hikari stroked the baby's cheek with her finger. Upon landing in heaven her body and spirit had been restored, and she was indeed a striking beauty to behold. Her chocolate braid seemed to almost glare with shininess, her skin glowed radiantly and her full red lips were smiling around teeth that were white and only a little out of line. Her torn clothes had been mended and cleaned in the journey; even her simple kimono seemed to have a new sheen to it.

Kaede had regressed in age somewhat, now appearing to be in her mid thirties rather than her early sixties. Her hair had darkened once more, and the patch over her right eye was gone. She saw this beautiful expanse of this utopia through two healthy eyes. The pain in her joints was all gone, and she was still round as ever, but her steps were full of energy and life.

Sesshomaru and Kohaku felt light hearted as children again. The anger and bitterness and frustration and guilt they felt for their actions was being cleansed from their very souls with every step closer to Buddha they got. Their crimes against their spirits had been atoned for, now all that remained was the healing, and every step healed a little more.

Koga felt his twisted heart slowly begin to unfold inside. He was finally able to allow Kagome and her family to go their own way. He felt his courage building in his long strides, and knew that he could strike out on his own in his new life and find happiness in it, without feeling guilty any longer. Ginta and Hakkaku knew they would be somehow involved with Koga, but not to the degree that they were before. They would find their individuality among their pack, and it would be good for all of them.

InuYasha and Kagome felt the strength of their family around them. For a long time it felt like they would be outnumbered by babies with no one to help them. They knew now that all present in this exodus into the valley would not allow them to flounder against something so small. They could feel the bond they shared with every person here. It was comforting and relieving and joyful all at once.

Shippo had grown to a full human height as they walked towards Buddha's throne. He was just a few inches taller than his mate, and she was still getting used to having to look up at him. It appeared as though he had aged some as well, evidently making his maturity level even with his age. He kissed his bride on her cheek, loving how they could feel so close to everyone present and still feel like they were the only two in the world. It was a wonderful feeling to experience all this love and happiness between them all. Rin felt a tiny flutter in her belly, knowing that even the kits she now carried felt it too.

Just as it seemed they would be turning a corner around the side of a massive cliff, Miroku and Sango stopped as their children gasped. Miroku called over his shoulder, "It's going to be very bright. It might take a moment to adjust yourself to it." They all nodded and made their way around the rocky jut of stone.

Just as Miroku promised, there was a bright white light so intense it seemed to burn through their eyelids, blinding them. Their first instinct was to cry out in pain, but there was none, only the feeling of peace and love and joy. Eventually, their bodies did adjust, and Kagome was the first of them to open her eyes and gaze upon Buddha himself. She gasped quietly, in awe of what was before her.

Buddha sat in a golden lotus which held a silk pillow covered in a cherry blossom pattern. His legs were crossed so that the bottoms of his feet faced upwards. His legs were covered by his luxurious white silk robe, which hung slightly open at the chest and was tied at the waist by a simple sash of the same fabric. His arms were bared from the elbow down, and he held his hands in mudra symbols. His face was serene and peaceful, and his hair had been worked into tiny knots all over his head. There seemed to be a flaming star at the center of his forehead, which must have been responsible for the blinding light they all experienced as they came to him. His long earlobes draped down to his shoulder, and every surface of his skin was a deep golden color and appeared to be smooth and soft. Behind him a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns swirled endlessly and appeared to be the back of his throne. Rays of color and light seemed to burst forth from everywhere near him.

"Miroku, I see you have accomplished the tasks I have given you," Buddha said as he smiled. "I am glad to see all of you."

The demons in the group did not understand the reverence the humans now made to this god. Their human companions all bowed before him. Sesshomaru, InuYasha, Shippo, Koga, Ginta and Hakkaku stood among their friends and family in awe, but were not sure what to do.

"It is acceptable for you to feel doubt in my presence, good demons. I know your kind does not value religious or spiritual guidance of any sort. All I want you to understand is this: Use discretion over everything you do. Use discretion with your words, your sword strokes, your arrows, your anger, your sadness. The only things you should not use with discretion are love, generosity and selflessness. Regardless of your reverence or lack thereof for me, with this secret you will never be wrong as you walk your long lives on the earth." His voice was deep but soothing, and the demons felt a calming peace wash over them as they all felt compelled to sit down.

"My precious humans. You all have suffered. Even the demons have suffered. Miroku and Sango suffered the most. They let the indiscretion with their angry words dissolve a bond that was written on the stars. They did not use discretion with their vices, and it cost them their love, their family, and their lives. I don't think I need to remind anyone of their misery. Kagome and InuYasha spent three years apart from each other, during which they agonized over whether or not they would be reunited. The memories of those three years are often times still unbearable, even though their love was finally realized as it was written. Rin, Shippo, Kohaku. Three children who lost their families during a time of war and treachery. The memories of parents and siblings that have gone on are very painful and sometimes set up impassable roadblocks for their lives in the present. Hikari, you have spent your entire adult life looking for the demon who saved your life, and fell into a poisonous trap when you felt you would never find him. Koga. Your hell was unique in that you could have chosen to end it at any time, yet you could not make the decision that needed to be made, and so you suffered for a long time. Hakkaku, I know you watched from a cliff as you saw your mother raped and torn apart by one of Naraku's minions, and I know the pain of that was insurmountable. Ginta, your loneliness was your undoing with Sango. Besides, the woman you were meant to be with hadn't yet arrived for you. Sesshomaru lived with bitterness and heartache most of his life, thinking wrongly that his father didn't love him and being afraid to love anything again. I set Rin into his life, but that was not enough. Kaede it seems has suffered the least, having lost her only sister to that vile Naraku, only to have her resurrected as one of the undead. But she never lost her discretion, and that is what kept her from suffering as much.

"I seized the opportunity to bring Miroku here when he died and right all of the wrongs that have been done to you heroes of Japan. I knew that in your hearts that you all were champions of love and mercy. Somewhere, you simply misstepped, and threw the whole course of events off into a tangent I could no longer control. Granted, none of these things that have happened did not throw off the course of written history to the point where defeating Naraku was impossible, but it left the lives of the heroes involved askew. I have decided to set you down in a new time with a fresh start."

He began to chant a mantra and suddenly the blinding light impossibly grew brighter. All of them felt the peace and joy penetrating through them, calming their wild fears as their bodies were slowly turned from flesh into a part of the light. "My children, I send you to your new lives. You will have very little memory of this actual event, but you will retain all of the memories of before. I will implant in your mind everything you will need to know about your new life, and it will be as seamless an integration as possible. Now go, and live as you were meant to!"

The wind swirled and moaned around them until the blinding light was replaced by darkness, and then they were all asleep, and they rested peacefully as they waited to awaken in another time.


	14. Upside Down

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. ****

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is after Buddha has set them down in the modern era, and it much more light-hearted than the previous chapters. I hope you find this to be as amusing as I did. You guys know sometimes I cry into the keyboard because of the stuff I'm writing. This time I could not quit laughing. ENJOY!

Lyrics to _Enter Sandman_ Property of Metallica

Something's wrong, shut the light  
Heavy thoughts tonight  
And they aren't of Snow White

Dreams of war, dreams of liars  
Dreams of dragon's fire  
And of things that will bite...

* * *

**10-7-10**

* * *

When he woke up, he felt as if he'd slept for five hundred years. His blue eyes opened and saw his beautiful wife, lying curled up next to him in a soft cotton nightgown. Her hair was loose, and he smoothed it down her back as he took her in his arms. He was trying to remember something so fuzzy it could have been a dream, about how he'd lost his precious Sango and proceeded to drink himself to death under the evening shade of a plum tree. He shook his head as he closed his eyes. That was obviously not the case, as she plainly laid here with him now, her soft cheek resting on his bare chest.

He looked over at the clock. It was ten minutes before seven in the morning. Almost time to get up and go to work. He reached over and flipped the alarm off as Sango stirred against him. "Good morning, my love," he said as he continued to stroke her tresses.

"Miroku?" she asked sleepily, her soft lips moving against his skin as she talked. "What happened last night?"

"Did you have weird dreams too?" he asked as he kissed her good morning.

"Oh man, they were the strangest I've ever had. We had a terrible argument, and I left you. And then I got hooked on this powerful drug and was screwing this really sweet soft-spoken guy in the back of this cave, but the whole time all I wanted was to come home to you. But then you died, and then I died… Really freaking weird."

Suddenly he rolled on top of her, covering her with kisses that were much too steamy for the light of day. He all but tore her from her night gown in his efforts to make love to her before his extra ten minutes were wasted. He loved to take her when she was groggy like this. She put up absolutely no resistance and was so relaxed that she came almost immediately. He jerked inside of her as he felt his own release, and then looked over at the clock. It was 7:02 now, he needed to get in the shower and get on with his day. He kissed her deeply once more before leaving her and then hurried naked into the bathroom that was adjoined to their bedroom.

She sighed as she heard the water kick on, and then decided she better wait for him to get out before taking a shower herself, sensing he was already in a hurry. She pulled her nightgown back on. She nearly busted her face open on the corner of the chest of drawers after she'd stumbled over some squeaky doll that belonged to Izumi. She picked it up and hurled it angrily out the bedroom door and into the hall. She went to her dresser to find some clean panties to put on after she got out of the shower, shoving aside the naughty toys she had hiding in there. One of them suddenly buzzed to life, scaring her half to death. She spotted a boomerang in the drawer as well, and looked at it a long time, feeling like it was trying to tell her something. Not being able to rationalize staring at a simple wooden boomerang, she went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wait her turn at the shower. Miroku poked his head out of the curtain, "What's taking you so long, come on in!" She smiled and stripped and joined him in the shower where he took her a second time, although they both nearly broke a hip in the slippery confined space. When he was finally clean again, he left her to wash herself in peace.

He walked out of their bedroom and into the hallway, stepping on the same doll that Sango had just hurled from their bedroom. He kicked it down the steps where it just missed the aquarium. He peeked into his daughters' room. They were both still asleep in their princess beds with a myriad of toys strewn on the floor. Among them were two sets of beads that caused Miroku to have a tickle in the darkest recesses of his mind. He quietly backed out of the doorway and turned to check on his son. The room opposite of the girls was where Kichirou slept. He remembered this tiny room used to be where he kept the computer, and he had since moved it down to the living room so that Kichirou had a room of his own to sleep in. On the walls were still a lot of the things that Miroku had decorated the little office with, and in a glass display case was an antique staff that had a golden head with some golden hoops on it. Something about how the light hit the golden hoops fueled that tickle in his mind. _What is it that I'm supposed to remember?_

Downstairs he went. It was now almost quarter till eight. He needed to get his shoes on and get out the door five minutes ago. But something was driving him crazy. He looked around the kitchen trying to find his keys, but instead found a children's book called "The Kazanna of Time". His eyes were drawn to his right hand. He flipped the palm upright and saw the faintest of scars. This was too much. "Sango! Are you done yet?"

"Yeah, what's up?" she called from upstairs.

"Come here for a sec, something funny's going on!"

He told her about the feeling he got when he spied the beads in the girls' room, and that the feeling just kept on intensifying as he saw the staff and then the title of this book gave goosebumps straight down to his socks.

"You know, come to think of it, I felt the same way when I saw that boomerang in the drawer, the one I got when we were in Australia last summer. Like it means something more than what it's supposed to."

He looked up at the clock, it was ten till eight now. He said, "Shit, I'm gonna be late."

"Aww, why don't you call in baby? You really don't seem well this morning, and I know a good cure for what ails ya." She kissed him slowly and deliberately.

"Really Sango, you're depraved!" He kissed her back and then pulled his cell phone from his pocket, calling into the housing inspector's office to tell them his sinuses were acting up again. Now having the entire day ahead of him, he shut Sango's sex drive down for the moment in an effort to figure out what the hell was going on.

* * *

"DAAA-AAAD!" Rin called through the apartment. Sesshomaru peeked over the top of his newspaper. What could those two be fighting about now, he wondered. He was dressed in a business suit and had his hair tied back in a neat ponytail. He sat with a cup of hot black coffee and a half eaten poptart as he read the comics and tried in vain to work the crossword puzzle without actually writing anything in it. "What!" he hollered back.

"Kohaku won't get out of the freakin' bathroom!" She was dancing in the hallway; her bladder had reached critical mass. She pounded on the door, "Come on you pervert or I'm gonna piss in your lap!"

"Rin, don't talk like that, it's not ladylike." He stood and walked down the hall to the bathroom, where he now pounded on the door with what his kids called his "cop knock". "Son, you better be birthing something in there and not 'borrowing' one of my magazines."

"Gimme a second! Damn!" Kohaku called back.

"You have exactly one second and then I'm bringing this door down."

Suddenly the door was wide open, and there stood Kohaku, with a ragged looking towel wrapped around his waist and a ton of hair around his bare feet. He had scissors in one hand and a shaving razor in the other. He had given himself a military hair cut, cutting his adolescent long hair off. It seemed he was trying to even up the sides.

"Kohaku I would have given you money to get a haircut if you needed it, dumbass." Sesshomaru was looking with horror at the mess he'd left in his wake. "I hope you plan on cleaning this up."

"Get out of my way guys, I really gotta go!" Rin pulled Kohaku out of the doorway as she wedged herself into the bathroom.

"Hey I'm not done!" Kohaku yelled.

"I won't be but a minute, shut up!" She slammed the door in their faces. They heard the sound of her streaming liquid into the toilet and then the victorious flush. She quickly washed her hands and then flung the door open again. "You're a slob Kohaku," she said as she brushed the hair from her feet before stepping on the carpet in the hall.

He slugged her in the arm and then Sesshomaru slugged him back, causing Kohaku to wince. "Don't hit your sister, she's a little more delicate now than she used to be."

"Just 'cause she's knocked up doesn't mean she's allowed to act like a bitch!"

Sesshomaru shoved Kohaku back in the bathroom. "Make sure you clean all that hair up. And watch your fucking mouth!" He slammed the door on him and then sighed loudly. Why did he have kids again? Oh yeah, because his father said it would be good for him. His father had said, 'Sesshomaru, if you had some kids I bet you'd soften up a bunch!' and 'Sesshomaru, don't you want someone to protect?'

He nibbled at his now cold cherry poptart. _Sesshomaru, don't you want someone to protect?_ The words floated in his head, building a haze in his already overloaded mind. He really should be getting to the office now, there were some papers he needed to file before heading into court this morning, and then there were at least three new clients to meet with. _No, that's not quite right… it's not 'Don't you WANT someone to protect?' it's 'Don't you HAVE someone to protect?' But how do I know that?_ He couldn't shake that creepy feeling that something was happening without his permission in his mind. Unable to pinpoint it, and unable to abandon his busy day, he called out, "Shippo!"

Shippo came out of the bedroom that he and Rin shared and came into the kitchen, scratching his head sleepily and stretching. "What's up Pops?"

"I got an appointment for Rin to see my friend Dr. Takenawa tomorrow. She said she'd be able to get her started with the prenatal care she needs so the babies are healthy." _Wait, how do I know there's going to be more than one? Didn't she_ just _come up pregnant? Like maybe a day or so ago?_

"Oh I like her, she's nice. That's Kaede right?" Sesshomaru nodded as Shippo was tying his long auburn hair behind him as he went about fixing breakfast for himself and the others. "Want me to make you an egg sandwich before you go?"

"Sure, just make sure it's not runny in the middle though, this is my last clean suit until I can get to the cleaners." That wisp of a memory refused to die, so he mentioned it to his son-in-law. "Hey does this mean anything to you? 'Don't you have something to protect?' It seems like it's important but I don't know why."

Shippo cracked an egg into the oiled skillet. "Hmm… No, it doesn't ring a bell. I tell you what's been running in my head though. The word 'kitsune'. Everywhere I turn I see a fox. Rin's got that stuffed fox on top of the TV, it's been there for freakin' ever but I never paid any attention to it before this morning. And then in the bathroom there's that crack in the wall near the doorjamb that kinda looks like a fox running." He held up the milk carton. "Foxy Farm Dairy. What the hell, ya know?"

Unbeknownst to Shippo, or any of the others, he used to have a big bushy fox tail. Buddha removed it the day he was in heaven, as well as extended his height to that of an average human. He increased his age so he was the same as Rin, thinking it would be easier for him in this new time period to be at least as old as she was. But all of this remained to be seen, as none of the time traveling companions were aware of what was happening yet.

"Well, if you think of any reason why that protecting someone crap is important write me a note or leave a message on my voicemail. I'm gonna be busy with clients all day." He drained the rest of his coffee as Shippo slathered some mayonnaise on the egg sandwich and handed it to him. "Make sure to get InuYasha over here to fix that crack in the bathroom." He was heading out the door. "And call Koga to see if we're sill going out to the lake this weekend."

"You're gonna be late, Pops! I got this, go on and get outta here!" Shippo was shooing him out the door like an old mother. As he finished fixing the morning meal consisting of eggs and bacon and slightly burnt toast, Shippo heard the sound of the shower going, meaning evidently Kohaku was happy with his self inflicted hair trauma enough to wash the trimmings from his body. He also heard the sound of plastic packaging rattling as he heard Rin scarfing down some saltines to steady her weak pregnant stomach. He heard the familiar scratch of the headboard against the wall as she got out of the bed, even though she was three rooms away with the door shut, and he had a skillet full of noisy cheering bacon in front of him. _Hey wait a second… That's some Superman hearing I've got going on this morning. What in the hell is going on?_

He heard her bare feet padding down the hallway, heard the swish of her arms at her sides, and listened as that first naked foot smacked down on the linoleum as she strode to meet him. She put her arms around his waist and hugged him from behind, feeling the slight sting of bacon grease spattering onto her arms. "Hey baby?" she asked as she buried her face in his auburn ponytail. "Did you have any weird dreams last night?"

* * *

Kagome sat with her triplets in front of her. Two of the three baby swings were in high gear, lulling the already fed and changed Ashoka and Haruko back to sleep. Tsukiko it seemed had other plans entirely. While she was not fussy or hungry or wet, she simply wanted to be held and gaze at her mother's face. The little girl looked eerily like Sesshomaru, except she didn't have his pointy elfin ears or his topaz colored eyes. She looked exotic and rare, and this morning she was behaving as such.

"What's got you so mystified, Tsukiko?" she asked the little girl. "What's in your little mind today?" She heard the sounds of InuYasha getting up. He was grunting and groaning as he got out of bed, then she heard a thump and a loud "Fuck!" rang out from their bedroom. She decided she better go check on him, leaving the sleeping infants in their swings and taking Tsukiko with her.

"InuYasha? You alright?"

"Damn it, if you wouldn't move the furniture around while I was sleeping I'd be fine!" He was always grumpy first thing in the morning. He looked up at her and saw the look on her face and said, "Ugg, I'm sorry. Where are my cigarettes?" She handed him the pack on the dresser. He shook one out and lit it as he sat on the side of the bed. "What time is it?" he asked in a much happier tone.

"It's about ten-thirty. Shippo called, he said Sesshomaru wants you to fix this crack in the wall in the bathroom." She watched as he blew out the drag he'd just taken, in the direction away from her and the baby. She tried to get him to quit before they were born, but she was satisfied that he cut down considerably, and most of the time refused to even be in the same room with one of their children if he was puffing away. This morning seemed to be an exception. Everything felt off…

"He said him and Sesshomaru and Rin all felt funny this morning when they woke up, like something was happening or had happened and they couldn't remember what it was. And honestly, I feel a little like that too." She threw a baby blanket over Tsukiko's head and face to protect her from the cigarette smoke and she sat down next to him on the bed. "Like every time I look at Ashoka I keep feeling like he died and came back to life. Like he was gone but then we got him back… It's like I'm trying to remember something I dreamed a long time ago, but it doesn't feel like a dream… Did that make any sense?"

InuYasha was staring out the window, looking at the stone Buddha statue he had next to the bird feeder. It was as if Buddha's laughing eyes were twinkling with a secret. "Actually, I keep feeling like we got skipped ahead."

"What do you mean?"

He took a drag off his cigarette. "Like say our lives were on tape. It's like someone said, 'Wait, stop, this part sucks, let's fast forward!' and then we are now all waking up and scratching our heads thinking, 'Did I miss something here?' It certainly feels that way to me." He knocked his ashes into the tray on the nightstand. "So have you heard anything from Koga? We still going to his lake house this weekend?"

"He called here too, asking about the same stuff Shippo was asking about. InuYasha, I think something strange is going on here."

He nodded and put the cancer stick out with a few jabs in the ashtray. "Yup, I think you just might be onto something there sweetheart."

* * *

Koga and his brothers owned a piece of property in the middle of nowhere that was situated on a lake. They ran it like a bed and breakfast and made considerably good money. Ginta and his wife Hikari ran the front end of it with the customers, while Koga and Hakkaku maintained the grounds, docks and the "recreational vehicles", which really was nothing more than three sea-doos Hakkaku saved from junk parts and a pontoon boat that had a stolen motor on the back. The house and grounds were a peaceful and wonderful little haven, right in the middle of nowhere. It was wild and free and untamed; just the way Koga liked everything in his life, from his women to his downtime.

This weekend they purposely didn't book anyone because he was having all his friends out for some relaxation time, on the house. Well, not exactly on the house. Really it was his payback to many friends who kept his ass out of jail and out of the hospital. His lawyer pal Sesshomaru Tashio had kept a disgruntled guest from suing him over a couple of mice in the kitchen, and his brother InuYasha had done some major work to said kitchen for only the cost of supplies. When it came time to renew the inspection after the repairs, Ginta's ex-girlfriend, Sango, had her husband come out and guarantee the whole report would pass without issue. And there was the trouble with a certain transmitted disease he'd caught from a chick that stayed overnight once, and the good Dr. Kaede Takenawa was kind enough to give him some samples of the medicine he needed so he wouldn't have to pay for it. He owed these people big time, so he told them to bring their lawn chairs and their sunscreen and come hang out at his place for the weekend on him.

But today was Thursday, and so if he was going to be ready for them he needed to get the lawnmower going and get the grass cut. Ginta and Hikari were busy cleaning the house (paying particularly close attention to that fucking kitchen) and it sounded like Hakkaku had already started on blowing the motors out on the sea-doos and the pontoon boat. He got up and jerked his hair back, stepped into a pair of raggedy jeans and slipped on a sleeveless Mötley Crüe t-shirt. He grabbed a coke out of his mini fridge and a star crunch and flipped the television on. "Boring, dumb, dumb, boring, awful," he said as he flipped through channels. Suddenly he came to a nature show that was showing a wolf pack taking down an elk at Yosemite National Park in the United States. He was mesmerized by what he saw on his grainy set. It seemed to strike a chord that resonated so deeply that he couldn't even swallow the bite he had chewed up in his mouth. The snarls among the pack were not meaningless to him, they were words and commands; orders from the alpha down the ranks on who was to get what piece of the meal and why. He could all but taste the hot blood of the freshly slain elk that the pack shared with each other. He could practically feel the heat between their bodies as they ate, and smell their satisfaction as they filled their carnivorous stomachs. Then it showed a scene of the wolves howling, and he literally had to bite his tongue to keep from doing it with them. Then a commercial flicked on and the spell was broken.

Koga shook his head and swallowed the mouth full of chocolaty gooey goodness and gasped for breath. That was one of the most intense moments he could ever remember having in his entire life. He chugged the coke down and finished the sticky treat before the show could come back on, wanting to be out of his apartment and get started on all the shit he had to do. "Damn that was too weird," he said as he left for the main house. He went inside and called Kagome, InuYasha's wife, to make sure that they had everything she would need for the triplets so she wouldn't have to haul too much stuff with them when they came up.

"What's wrong Koga, you sound like something's bothering you." She said in her sweet voice. Koga always had thing for her, ever since they met on that trip they took with their high school. He actually had a crazy idea once that he was going to stand in the wings like Batman and watch over her even though she was married. Thank god that chick with the tongue ring found him before he could follow them to wherever it was they went on their honeymoon. She turned him from Batman into Orgazmo. He was glad for the distraction; it made him realize how stupid that idea was.

"Nah, I'm okay. I saw this thing on TV about wolves and it… it just really got to me in a way I didn't understand. Like it was something more than just a program. Kinda like déjà vu."

"That's funny because I keep feeling like everything is off for me too. Maybe it's a magnetic thing or something." They settled their plans for the weekend and then he went out to the tool shed and rode out on a Honda riding mower and set about getting his chores done, never forgetting how chills ran down his spine when the wolves howled.

* * *

Kaede Takenawa kept thinking all day something was funny about every patient she saw today. One patient had managed to get shot with an arrow in the left shoulder. Something that seemed to stick out in her mind the most was his peaceful expression even as she jerked and pulled the arrow out. Another one was a monk who had been stung by a lot of poisonous wasps but seemed to recuperate rather quickly after she gave him an antidote. There was a child she had to send on to the hospital who lost her right eye. A little boy came in for a check up clutching a little stuffed fox. A bawdy woman came in to see if she was pregnant, and she had a tattoo on her stomach of a tiger holding a boomerang in its mouth. Another patient had a tattoo of three wolves howling at a moon that had a woman's face in it. Just strange all day long. She waved goodbye to her receptionist and drove back to her tiny house.

She checked her answering machine and found a message from Koga Yamada, saying that he hoped she was ready to do some relaxing at his inn this weekend and that anytime after four was good to come on in. She happened to catch her reflection in a mirror as she made her way to her bedroom. She was hefty, that much she'd been for years now though. But something didn't feel right about what was looking back at her. She felt as old as the earth itself, not that her joints bothered her or anything, but just as if she'd been living a long while. However, her face was still young enough to pass for thirty, her energy levels could pass for thirty, but her heart felt sixty or older. _An old spirit maybe_ , she thought absently as she put on her pajamas and then went to the kitchen to make herself some soup.

As she stared down into the pot, waiting for the water to come to a boil, she seemed to see a vision of old wrinkly hands belonging to herself, cooking in an iron kettle over an open fire. She thought her memory recalled the scent of fresh herbs and a homey, musty smell. She had an insane urge to cover her right eye, and when she did, she finally felt a little more like herself. Memories like this came up all day today, little twinges of memories so faded they hardly seemed like memories at all. She took her soup and went up to bed. In her dreams that night, she dreamt of the Sengoku Jidai, something she hadn't thought about since her days in high school. The dreams seemed so real they could have been memories. She saw the three wolves and the lady with the boomerang. She saw the monk, the poor girl that didn't belong there at all, and she saw the one who wasn't a dog and wasn't a man. She saw Buddha, and three special children, as well as three special infants. It seemed so real that when she awoke the next day she could have sworn she was just at the Shinto shrine in the village, paying homage to her deceased sister, who had been raised from the dead only to be killed again by the same man who killed her the first time.

She was definitely looking forward to some relaxation time. Something about these dreams that felt like memories didn't sit right with her.


	15. Come Together

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. ****

* * *

Lyrics to _Kings and Queens_ property of Aerosmith

Tossin' turnin', nightmares burnin'  
Dreams of swords in hand  
…

Living times of knights and mares  
Raising swords for maidens fair  
Sneer at death, fear only loss of pride  
Living other centuries  
Déjà vu or what you please  
Follows true to all who do or die

* * *

**10-8-10**

* * *

Rin was laid back on an examination table with her feet in stirrups. She had never had this kind of a medical exam before, and was scared out of her ever loving mind. The woman between her knees was kind and gentle though, and explained every sensation she felt as the good doctor confirmed her pregnancy. Rin felt so embarrassed at having her nether region exposed in this manner. After all, the only person that had ever seen it besides herself was her young husband, who had not been allowed back during this part of the exam. Soon enough, the speculum was removed and she was pulled into a sitting position by Dr. Takenawa.

"Well, ye are in the family way young lady. I have to say though, ye are quite early into your pregnancy, how did ye come by the knowledge of it? Surely a urine test would not have been able to confirm it at this earliest of stages."

That was a good question. She seemed to remember a foggy vision where her father had embraced her and cried into her hair, and then congratulated Shippo on a job well done. It seems her father knew by her scent, but that made absolutely no sense. No man or woman on earth had ever foretold a pregnancy by scent. "Doctor, I really don't know. My father told me I was, before I even started having morning sickness."

Kaede sat down on a rolling stool that squeaked blue murder with every slight motion. The radiator kicked on as her thoughts consumed her. She was good friends with the girl's father, and thought she had a memory of seeing him in a Chinese looking set of armor, missing his left arm no less, and with two swords strapped at his hip. She remembered the symbol of his family's house on the kimono, a red flower and honeycomb pattern, quite vividly. She looked at Rin, with eyes foggy and trying to remember some detail that was flitting about in the corners of her dusty brain. She reached up and covered her right eye and squinted at the girl. She felt her memory stir quietly as she envisioned Rin when she first came to Edo. A sloppy little girl who wore a gold and orange kimono with a green obi, gapped teeth and her hair gathered at the side of her head. _But how can that be? I've seen this child almost all her life here in Tokyo! I gave her examinations for school, sewn stitches on her finger, x-rayed the arm that wasn't broken only badly bruised at the bone. There is no way this same child came from the Sengoku period!_

"Doctor?" Rin asked as she looked at the woman, who still held her hand over her right eye and gazed at her through her squinted left one. "Are you alright?" _Funny, she looks like she should only have one eye…_

She almost jerked her hand away from her face and said, "Oh, yes child, I'm sorry. I've been having a strange pain in my eyes lately, forgive me!" She rustled Rin's chart in front of her, the sound seeming to break the flashback. Finally she settled on trying to figure out her due date. "Now let's see… ye said this probably happened fairly recently? Last period should have been at the end of September… Wow, so early!" Sesshomaru would have been proud to know he could make out the smell of new life so early, if he even knew he'd done it at all. "That makes the time of arrival sometime around…" She fiddled with a little circular thing that she slid the layers around on, trying to pinpoint an approximate date. "June twelfth or so. Of course ye may come a little early if there's more than one in there, or a little later if he's feeling good and cozy in his one room apartment. This is just a best guess approximation though. But it is certain ye will have a summer birth!"

She wrote some technical jargon in Rin's records and then gasped. "Rin! Ye are only sixteen! I thought ye to be at least eighteen!"

Rin smiled. "Yeah, Shippo undid my resolve to wait." Her hand went absently behind her left ear. _It feels like there should be a mark there, but there isn't. Why am I looking for a scar there?_

"At least he married ye before getting ye into this condition."

"Oh yes, we've known for a long time we would get married. We just couldn't wait any longer. Thank goodness dad paid for us to take our graduation exams early. This way we wouldn't have to try to not show affection to each other while at school." Her fingertips searched desperately for scar tissue that was not there. _Damn it, it SHOULD be there! I remember him biting me there! I remember how it had hurt so bad in such a good way! Where is Shippo's mark!_

Kaede closed the manila folder shut. "Ye may get dressed. Remember, no heavy lifting, no strenuous activities, including bedroom related ones." Rin smirked at that. "Drink plenty of water and eat plenty of healthy foods, no smoking, no drinking, no over the counter medicines unless you call here first okay? Your morning sickness can be relieved with saltine crackers when you first wake up. Don't leave home without them!" She giggled. "If ye have any questions don't hesitate to call me." She knew the girl was adopted by the powerful and handsome lawyer, and they had no mother to speak of. She knew the girl's aunt would be of great help to her though, but wanted to reassure her uneasy face.

"Thank you, Dr. Takenawa." The two talked briefly about their trip to the Yamada place and then they bid farewell to each other, both of them felt that odd tug that was now not so deep in their foggy minds.

* * *

Kagome was exhausted. InuYasha had been out trying to get caught up on the small jobs so they'd have a little extra cash for the weekend, just in case one of the kids needed something while they were out on their little vacation. She was left at the house with three screaming babies to take care of, as well as pack up all the things they would need to take with them. Thank goodness Sango had thought ahead and packed all their stuff yesterday. She helped Kagome out immensely as she threw outfits and diapers into a huge suitcase, while Kagome settled her children and threw stuff into a duffle bag for herself and her husband.

"Do you think it will be too cold to go swimming?" she asked Sango, who was now getting her own children to sit down and eat at the low coffee table in Kagome's living room.

"I don't know. I'm planning on do some sunbathing though. I brought my bikini just in case."

Kagome chuckled. "I think my bikini days are over. Triplets ruin the abdominals you know."

"Nonsense, I had two big twins myself and look at me," she raised her shirt to reveal a perfectly sculpted stomach, complete with a six pack that was almost an eight pack. "It just takes discipline."

Kagome groaned. "You're a freaking Jujitsu instructor! I've never done anything more strenuous than putting up a Christmas tree!" Actually, she thought maybe some of the nights she spent with InuYasha in the back of his work van might have been some of the most strenuous activity she'd ever done. She turned back to the duffle bag and shoved some clean t-shirts inside.

"Hey, where'd that mark on the back of your neck go?" Sango happened to look up and see that the large scar she normally carried on her neck near her shoulder was gone. It seemed odd that it would be missing, it was something she'd gotten from some accident she had on her honeymoon.

"What mark?" Though she acted as if she didn't know what Sango was speaking of, her hands flew right to the spot, rubbing exactly where one of InuYasha's fangs had punctured her on her Sengoku body.

"The mark that was right where your hand is. Don't tell me you have no idea what I'm talking about…"

Kagome looked deep in thought. She seemed to be remembering something very important that had happened between her and InuYasha, but it was so distant and shrouded. "Gimme a sec, Sango. I need to meditate for just a moment." She shut the door and sat on the bed and concentrated on calming her already frazzled nerves. She tried to think of the mark that wasn't, and then she seemed to be inside a dream...

" _Kagome, do you love me?" They were sitting beneath the tree of ages, Goshinboku; the very place they had met all those years ago._

_She smiled at him. "Of course I love you. I waited by the well every single minute I could, hoping it would open and let me come back to you. When it finally opened, my mama was with me, and she told me to come to you, knowing I would never be happy without you. I love you very much."_

_He seemed fidgety. "There's something I must do to you to show the world you are mine, but I'm so afraid of hurting you."_

" _You need to mark me." It was almost a command._

" _Yes. I'm afraid it will hurt so bad that you will ask me to stop, and if it's only half done then it doesn't count." He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "I don't wanna ever do anything half-assed with you. Do you think you can take the pain?"_

_She kissed him softly and gently. He was always so worried about her pain ever since he realized how much he hurt her by seeing Kikyo behind her back all those times. "InuYasha, it's going to hurt when you take my virginity too, but I'm willing to let you do that as well."_

_He put his arm around her slender waist. "I don't wanna lay with you until I'm sure you're marked. I will not take you if you can't stand the pain for me to do this the right way. This way, if you can't stand it," he swallowed. "If you can't stand it you won't be ruined for someone else."_

" _Don't be silly," she giggled. She rested her head on his left shoulder. "I am ready my love." He could feel her soft smile against his neck. She shrugged the miko top over so as to expose the creamy skin of her own shoulder to his mouth. "Mark me so I may wear our bond on my body."_

_For a moment he only breathed, nervous and scared. She let her hands trail down his chest and into his lap, where she found him to be soft and trembling at her touch. She gently rubbed there, feeling the confidence in him rise, as did his flesh. She kissed his neck as she heard him drag in breath after breath, steadying his nerves. Then she felt him nuzzle her near her ear, sniffing. He inhaled her scent into his nose as she continued to coax him to do what he had to do: bite down into her and leave his name in her flesh. He grabbed her roughly and spun her around in his lap so she was facing away from him. She could feel his stiffness pressing against her as he held his face right at the shoulder she'd bared for him, breathing in her smell, tasting her on the cool night air. "The beast… He wants to do it." InuYasha's demon wanted to be the one to mark her so it would be a true mark. He had told her this might happen._

" _InuYasha!" she said sharply, disturbing the quiet conversation they'd been having, "Take me in your jaws and mark me as your mate!" She felt his body turn hot as the beast came through. He snarled by her ear in a voice she knew all too well. "Forgive me," it said, and then clamped down on her shoulder with such force she thought for sure the beast's teeth had met and had taken a bite out of her rather than just leaving a mark. The pain was excruciating and she cried out with it, but the beast tried to console her as his sharp tongue worked overtime, carving InuYasha's kanji into the bite mark. She felt the muscles in that arm trembling with pain and fear, wondering if he'd permanently damaged some nerve tissue. She cried with the pain, but they were tears of joy; a love that was strewn with roadblocks and disaster after disaster had been finalized and they were now mated for life. Eventually, the pain began to subside as InuYasha took control over himself and forced his fangs to shrink back to normal size. He withdrew his teeth from her flesh, and licked the blood that came from her. Eventually the bleeding stopped and she was left with a beautiful mating mark that had the four fang wounds, the shallow lesser teeth marks, and his kanji in the middle of it all. He had kept his promise to her to make sure the mark was permanent and done the right way. Minutes later they consummated their bond underneath the sacred tree in the light of the silvery moon._

"Kagome?" Sango had come in to check on her. She'd been tranced out for nearly an hour. "Are you okay? You look pale." She heard InuYasha come in from work as she looked for the Kleenex.

"Sango, something is not right here. Not right at all." She was very moved by the memory she had just relived. There were tears on her shirt and her nose felt stuffy. She reached to her shoulder where there was no scarring, only velvety smooth skin, and she cried harder. She wanted to feel the slightly dimpled skin there, signifying that she had indeed been marked by her beloved mate.

"Hey, what's going on?" InuYasha said as he threw his keys on the dresser at the sound of her crying. He knelt before her as she sat on the bed. "What's wrong sweetheart?" She threw her arms around him, thankful to see him after having just seen him in her minds eye. She was nearly inconsolable.

"InuYasha, do you remember? Do you remember the tree and the night you marked me?"

 _Marked._ This word rang through his brain over and over. _Why does that sound so familiar and so important?_ "It's weird Kagome, it's like I know what you're talking about but I don't. Like it's something hiding way in the back of the closet. Tell me what's got you so upset." He was brushing her tear dampened hair from her eyes.

"It's gone! The mark you put on me is gone!" Her hand was rubbing the place where it should have been. "You bit me the night we married, before you even tried to undress me! It should be right here! Right HERE!" She sobbed against his polo shirt that had the name of his handy man company on it. "Why is it gone?"

" _The beast… He wants to do it."_ "What the fuck?" InuYasha shook his head. Sango was almost afraid now. "What beast?" He hadn't realized he said this out loud until Kagome pulled herself away from him. "Your beast! The demon inside you!"

He looked at her like she was an absolute nutzo. "Demon inside me? What are you talking about?"

She told them both the memory she'd experienced; the touching and special moment she and InuYasha shared under a sacred tree over five hundred years ago. She asked InuYasha to bring her the wedding album that had all the pictures they'd taken on their honeymoon in Paris. There was a picture of her overlooking the English Channel in a blue bikini, but there was no trace of any mark. A few pictures later she was standing seductively in a hot tub, covered in just the right places, but there still was no mark on her shoulder.

"Hey Sango, how did you know about the mark if it's not in any of these pictures?" She flipped through the book quickly, searching desperately for any shot that could have revealed the bite to her friend.

"I just remember you having it there. If I close my eyes I can see it plain as day."

"Wait, you asked where it was because you didn't see it, and then that triggered this memory?" InuYasha lit a cigarette as he paced in the bedroom. "And then you triggered something in my mind, because when you said 'marked' I remembered something about this beast, but that's all that I can remember of it." He drew and exhaled the smoke. "This is really fucking weird."

"Miroku and I have been having funny moments like this too. Like when he saw the staff on the wall in Kichirou's room. He about hit the floor though when he saw that book's title that was on the kitchen table. Hey, maybe it means something to you. The name of the book was "The Kazanna of Time". Ring any bells?"

InuYasha looked right at Sango, held his right hand out in front of him and braced it with his left. "WIND TUNNEL!" His voice rang through her ears jarring a dozen different memories loose, all of her handsome husband standing with legs wide apart, wearing a navy and purple monk's robe, and the wind tunnel sucking everything in its path violently into the palm of his right hand. "Oh my god," she said as she hit her knees. She looked up at InuYasha with a dazed look and whispered, "Hiraikotsu."

They both looked at her with recognition. It was becoming clear to them they had either lived two different lives or they were all sharing some kind of really fucked up dream.

Suddenly there was the sound of a baby crying and two little girl voices trying to shush it back to sleep. The trio had to disband and get back to the life they were living at this moment now. They should have been packed and ready and rolling already, and Sango was late in picking Miroku up from work. She flipped her cell phone open and called him as she gathered their kids into the SUV.

"Sango!" InuYasha called from the doorstep. "When we meet up, we need to talk to everyone and see if they can recall anything as well! I think we need to get to the bottom of this before we all go insane!"

She was nodding at him. "We'll see you guys in a little while!"

Something big was going on here, he could feel it in his very soul.

* * *

"Dad, are Shippo and I gonna have to share a room with someone else? Or is there enough room for everyone to have their own?" Rin was not fooling anyone. Sesshomaru looked at her exasperatedly.

"Honestly Rin, you can't keep your hands to yourself?"

Her face reddened. "No, it's not like that. I mean, it's kind of a romantic and out of the way place, I only mean that if _something_ were to happen I'd like to know if I should wear lingerie or hiking boots."

Sesshomaru groaned as he finished throwing the rest of his clothes into his old army bag. "How is it you are not even blood relation to me and you still have my taste for sins of the flesh?"

"DAD!" she said as she covered her ears.

"Listen, I've only been to the place once and I don't remember how many rooms there are. And on top of that it is going to be pretty crowded as it is. I would err on the side of caution and pack the hiking boots." He saw she was serious as she reached into her closet and threw them into a half filled suitcase.

"Do you know if there's going to be any girls there that are my age, dad?" Kohaku asked. He'd given up on the self made hair cut and went while Rin was at the doctor to the barber and had him fix it.

"I doubt it son. But there are jet skis, kinda makes up for it a little doesn't it?"

He smiled as evidently he thought a sea-doo might be more fun than a dumb ole girl anyway. He pulled his swim trunks from a half opened drawer in his messy room.

Sesshomaru looked over at Shippo, who seemed to be staring a hole through the wall. In his hands held a newspaper advertisement that read "Spinning Top Casino invites you to play the hottest new game in Japan! FOXFIRE MAGIC!"

"Shippo." It broke his thoughts and looked up at Sesshomaru. "What do you got there that's so damn depressing? You look like you lost your best friend."

Shippo blinked for a moment, trying to gather himself. "Remember how things kinda feel weird?" Everyone in the house stopped doing what they were doing. They all knew exactly what he was talking about. It was that feeling of remembering a dream, but you weren't sure if it had been a dream or a memory.

"What's bothering you Shippo." Sesshomaru asked to see the advertisement.

"I don't know if I dreamed it or not. It feels like a dream but somehow I know it's not, yet I can't prove it." He pointed at "Spinning Top". "That's a magic trick to fool your enemies into running away from you. It's an illusion of a huge top coming right at you." He pointed at "FOXFIRE MAGIC". "Foxfire is a defense attack that can shield people from heat of flame and harsh wind. Sometimes you can use it as an offensive attack. It was weak when I was small, and then it got better with training. And Fox Magic is what encompasses all the attacks and illusions." He looked up at Sesshomaru and said, "But how do I know any of that? How do I know what this jumbled up random shit means?"

Rin saw her opportunity to interrupt. "Since we're on the subject of weird shit happening today, I have a question for you, dad. Dr. Takenawa asked me how I came to know I was pregnant. Didn't you tell me I was? I didn't pee on a stick or nothing, you just told me about it one day. Seemed like we were out in a field…"

Sesshomaru's eyes seemed to glaze over as he lost himself in a thought that had been swimming in the puddles of his brain. He seemed to recall a field of flowers that Rin and Shippo stood in. Among the smell of the flowers he caught the scent of his daughter's babies inside of her. Their scent had been as easy to discern as a bundle of fresh fruit from a bucket of shit. But he certainly didn't think he had that kind of smelling power. Surely that had to be a dream. No one has ever told someone "Hey, you smell pregnant!"

He took a tentative sniff, wondering what the others in the room thought of this. It didn't strike them as odd though. In fact the sound of him sniffing the wind seemed to strike a nerve with both Rin and Shippo, as Rin remembered Sesshomaru doing this quite often when they were together, and Shippo recalled InuYasha doing it as well. Suddenly he caught a thousand different odors in one breath. He could smell the lingering odor of onions that Shippo chopped last night for dinner, he caught the faint wisp of the paper gown Rin had worn at the doctors office, the smell of something that had spilled in the carpet and wasn't cleaned up, the laundromat from two blocks over, even the smell the wood from his dresser on the t-shirt he now wore. And just barely, just faintly, he could make out the smell of two male grandchildren. He was just as shocked by his Superman nose as Shippo was with his Superman hearing.

Kohaku suddenly felt something tickling in his mind. "I need a red pen and a piece of paper." Rin scurried to find her backpack that she used to carry at school. She dug out a notebook that had "Rin and Shippo 4-ever" scribbled all over the front wrapped in heart drawings, and a red magic marker. Kohaku threw the notebook up against the wall and began drawing. When he was finished he showed them a picture of three hexagons with white flowers in them: the symbol of Lord Sesshomaru's family. All of them stood in awe of the symbol. Kohaku held it out in front of him like a cross to a vampire. "We were bound to this house! This family crest covered your kimono dad! You were a lord!"

"Lord Sesshomaru, Inu no Taisho, ruler of the Western Lands." They all looked at Shippo. "I don't know how I know that!" he burst out, frustrated and angry at what seemed to be happening inside his mind. Rin put her hand on his shoulder, trying to soothe him. She wouldn't mention the mark that was missing from behind her ear right now; he was upset enough as it was.

Sesshomaru willed saliva into his mouth so he could speak. "Kids, I think we should get our shit together and get on to the Yamada place. I have a feeling we're going to be having a very interesting discussion once we get there." They all agreed and made their way downstairs to where his beat up Toyota sat, loading it up and then driving out to the inn, full of questions and dying for some answers.

* * *

Koga was grumpy. His dreams were filled with wolves and wilderness, dreams where he and his brothers roamed the eastern lands nearly day and night, constantly running and patrolling until finally they had to take rest at their wolf den that overlooked a beautiful waterfall. He slept all night but when he awoke he felt unrested from all the running he'd done in the dreamscape. He groaned awake, found a pair of clean jeans that weren't so raggedy and put on a clean t-shirt, this time it was one he'd just gotten from the Kiss concert not two weeks ago in Osaka. It just wasn't the same as when he'd first seen them in 2001; that was their farewell tour. That souvenir shirt had been lost a long time ago, probably when he got hauled in for possession of an illegal firearm. The only thing that saved his ass was that it wasn't loaded and they found no ammunition when they confiscated it. Well, that and the fact that Sesshomaru had painted him out to be an innocent person that got used in a deal gone bad. In truth, the reason he bought the mortar launcher was because he wanted to blow some of the roots out of the lake. They used to have two boats, but the speedboat's hull was so badly damaged from a root that tore through it that they ended up sinking it out in the deepest part. So Koga had this brilliant plan to just blow the roots out of the water. Turns out it wasn't such a brilliant plan after all.

He didn't dare turn the television on. He was afraid of seeing the wolves again. He grabbed a coke and a star crunch (the breakfast of champions!) and sat on the porch of the main house as he waited for his guests to arrive. It was after two when he woke up, and so he figured they would be coming in another hour or so. He propped his bare feet up on the railing and tilted the wicker chair onto its back two legs and just listened to the world around him.

"Hey Koga," Ginta said as he came out and sat in the chair next to him. "You ready for all these people?"

"Heh, are _you_ ready for all these people? Are you ready for all these _kids_?" Six kids all under the age of five. This could get hectic.

"We've got plenty of food, I filled both the freezers last night. Hikari and Hakkaku and I went hunting and got some venison down there."

There was the familiar stir of memory as Ginta mentioned that they'd gone hunting. _Hunting is hunting. We do it for sport, for food, as pest control… Hunting's a way of life here, so why does that feel funny to me?_ Koga felt the hair on his neck stand up as Ginta said, "I love hunting all together like that. It makes me feel like I'm part of a pack."

"Ginta, have you been getting any weird vibes lately? Like stuff happening that is tied to something else from a really long time ago?"

He leaned forward in the chair, touching his elbows to his knees. "Oh yeah. When we were at the grocery we saw a woman in leather pants selling bunches of poppies. I couldn't figure out what about it made me ache so bad inside. It made me think of a dream I had a long time ago…" Koga told him about the wolf show he caught yesterday and how he almost bit his tongue off to keep from howling with the pack on the set. "Yeah, I think that's why Hakkaku and I had so much fun last night hunting. I had the most insane urge to kill the deer with my bare hands and teeth. And when I caught the smell of its blood it was all I could do to keep from eating it right there, just as it was. I've been thinking about it all day, why I would feel compelled to do something so animalistic."

They didn't have time to continue the conversation, because Miroku and Sango turned into the long driveway at that point. Not far behind them was Sesshomaru and his crew. They parked by the "carriage house" which was really just a quaint name for their tool shed. Miroku's kids came spilling out like little clowns from a clown car, running in three separate directions and squealing at the top of their lungs. _Oh great, I better start pounding the aspirins down now,_ Koga thought to himself. He walked over to his guests and said, "Hey guys! Glad you found your way!"

"We really appreciate this generous offer Mr. Yamada." Sango bowed to show her respect to him. _Wow, what a hottie. No wonder Ginta was hung up on her._

"Please, call me Koga. I only have a last name because the law requires it." He shook Miroku's hand. "Just so you know, I did everything I could to make the place childproof, so don't worry about anything. We've got plenty of room so go on and pick yourself out a bed. There's eight rooms and three bathrooms, I think we'll be able to accommodate everyone." Hakkaku came out to help get all their luggage in the house when he suddenly recalled having seen a really cool looking tattoo on the back of Sango's neck, one she had when she and Ginta were together. He let them walk in front of him so as to be able to look at it without her or her husband noticing. But when he finally got a good look at her, the cool tattoo with Ginta's name in it was gone without a trace. He'd seen laser work that had been done on a tat before, but this looked as if there was never a tattoo or scar there of any kind, like it was the skin she'd been born with. Between that and everything reminding him of being a wolf, he thought it best to close his mouth and open his eyes and ears to see if anyone else felt as odd as he did.

"Sesshomaru, how's it been my friend?" Koga extended his hand to him. "It's been too long since I've seen you outside that stuffy suit. Nice shirt!"

Sesshomaru looked down to see which one it was he had on, and it was a vintage Led Zeppelin one with the Swan Song logo on it. "Oh thanks! I always wanted one and the kids got it for me for my birthday." He threw the keys to the car to Shippo, the most responsible of the three teenagers he had with him, and the youngest. "You got any cold beer in this mansion?"

Koga clapped Sesshomaru on the shoulder. "I have an endless supply in my basement. I'm not kidding either, I have at least six pallets of Sapporo chilling down there, and at least five cases of it in the secondary fridges. I even have a couple bottles of fine quality sake if you want to do that." If Miroku had heard that he would have gone straight away and poured them all down the drain. It was good that he didn't have Shippo's extraordinary hearing.

Koga was about to go in and crack the first of many beers when InuYasha's minivan came rolling in, followed by the Dr. Takenawa. "Go on and make yourselves at home, Hikari can show you where the beer is. None for your kids though! I don't wanna lose my liquor license!" he called after him as he went in the house.

He first looked at Kagome, her pretty face half covered by a pair of ginormous sunglasses. In many ways, she was still the gangly awkward youth he'd first fallen in love with. But he only had to watch how she was with InuYasha and know she'd made the right choice. He walked over and asked if there was anything he could do to help get the babies out of their car seats. InuYasha pulled two baby slings out and tied one to himself and one to Kagome. He then got the babies out one by one and slid them on to their chests, leaving Kagome to physically hold Ashoka with her arms. InuYasha pulled their bags from the back and shut the hatch, then went to Kagome and took his son as Koga gathered up their stuff and hauled it in the house. Kaede parked her Smart car on a shady puddle beneath a willow tree and brought her tiny duffel bag with her, stopping to admire Tsukiko who was just waking up on Kagome's full chest.

Now they were all here. All gathered together by fate once more. There was a huge barbeque, and they all ate until they felt as if they couldn't eat any more. The children were all soon tired out from having ran in the grass and played on the swing set out in the back yard almost the whole time they'd been here, and the babies seemed to be at peace as well. It was time for the adults to discuss the strange happenings and goings on.

After deciding it was best to go around and share their experiences first, Miroku began with how there seemed to be clues that made him think he had lived another life. He told them of the golden headed staff and the prayer beads, and then of the book, "The Kazanna of Time". Then Sango told how felt about the souvenir boomerang, and how later she'd discovered it had a name and was much larger than the boomerang she now owned. Kagome told the heartbreaking story of a mating mark that meant so much and was now gone. InuYasha confessed that he'd been quietly obsessed with watching videos of swordsmanship on YouTube. He couldn't get enough of it. Rin relayed how she was missing her mark as well, and how she felt when Kaede covered up her eye. Sesshomaru told them of his super human sense of smell, and the recognition of the family symbol that Kohaku had drawn on a piece of notebook paper.

They went around sharing everything, piecing together a past that must have been if all these interlocking parts could come together and form a whole. They decided they all must have been fairly close to each other in the past as they were right now, and that something must have happened if they were sent forward in time with hardly no recollection of anything.

"Damn it, it makes my brain hurt!" InuYasha yelled as he cracked another beer. He had a lit cigarette hanging from his lip as he talked. "How is it we can have these well defined and documented histories in _this_ world, but also have such well defined though foggy memories of the other world?"

Miroku sighed loudly. "I think we're working ourselves in circles. Right now I think we ought to turn in and get some rest and start fresh tomorrow. Our brains are fried, as well as our livers."

Kaede had volunteered to sleep with all the children and had turned in early. InuYasha, Sesshomaru and Koga were about three sheets to the wind, where as Miroku, Ginta, Hakkaku and Hikari were all only buzzed. Sango had a sip of sake to be polite, and Kagome, who was still breastfeeding from time to time took none at all, polite or not. It was getting late, and so most everyone decided to turn in. Shippo and Rin had taken off for a walk in the woods (Sesshomaru noted she had the hiking boots on and smiled a little) and Kohaku was enjoying the hell out of himself just swimming laps out in the lake. Koga grabbed another beer for himself and Sesshomaru as everyone headed off to their beds.

"I got a surprise coming man, you gotta promise not to pass out on me."

"I could drink you under the table any night of the fucking week, pal."

Koga chuckled. "It ain't the drinking that concerns me. I wanna see if you can outdo me in another area."

Sesshomaru took a drink of his frosty lager. "Oh?"

"Yeah," Koga said evilly. "This is the one that's gonna count."


	16. The Lemon Song

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. ****

* * *

_**WARNING: This chapter is going to be FULL of sexual content. If you are squeamish, you may choose to skip to the next chapter. Notes will be at the end as to plot points if you skip ahead.** _

_**If you are still reading this, you can expect pretty much any sexual content on the planet. There will definitely be some master/slave content, oral and anal, quite possibly group sex. I am not usually so perverted, but the story is basically writing itself at this point and demands a lemon.** _

* * *

Lyrics to _Traveling Riverside Blues_ property of Led Zeppelin

Squeeze my lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg  
Squeeze it so hard, I'll fall right out of bed  
Squeeze my lemon, 'til the juice runs down my leg

I wonder if you know what I'm talkin' about

Oh, but the way that you squeeze it girl,  
I swear I'm gonna fall right out of bed.

* * *

The house that Koga had was a replica of a famous house from a movie called _Gone with the Wind_. It was a southern antebellum style plantation home that looked just like Tara, and it truly was a beautiful and comfortable place to spend a few days in the country. But Koga was a pervert, and he took special care to ensure that all of his rooms had all the comforts he'd expect from a high quality inn. The walls were all soundproofed. It was this fact that caused the doctor to volunteer to sleep with the babies. She didn't think the parents would be able to hear them in the night. Koga soundproofed the rooms because he figured if people wanted to get wild and freaky while they were on vacation that they should be allowed to, and without having to worry about the other housemates hearing them. He also made sure that the headboards and bed frames were bolted to the walls and secured to the floor, to keep from banging them into the walls all night long should things get to rockin' and rollin' in the bed. In every nightstand was an assortment of condoms and a box of baby wipes, just in case you needed a quick freshen up between rounds. He also had a number of towels stacked in the bedside chairs that he affectionately called "cum rags" so that no one would be forced to drip their way to one of the bathrooms to take a shower. Koga's preplanning was certainly going to come in handy tonight, as it seemed everyone was under the spell of the mansion's southern charm.

* * *

**Late 10-8-10, early 10-9-10**

* * *

Sango was feeling confused and tired. How did they manage to lead two lives like that? She tried to shake it out of her mind as she picked up Miroku's beer and finished it off. She did not like to drink in front of others, especially in front of Koga. She always felt like his eyes were raking down her when she would take a drink, as if he were waiting for her to start magically stripping or something. When she was with his brother Ginta, sometimes she felt like he had bugged the bedroom they would spend all night in. It totally would not have surprised her if there were videos of them floating around somewhere in Koga's skuzzy little apartment. "Fucking perv." Miroku walked in the room with three more Sapporos in his arms and she relieved his load by taking two for herself. She cracked one open and said, "You know, this really is a nice house." She was admiring the twelve foot ceiling and the huge oak doors. The hardwood floor beneath them shined like glass. The bed was high and full and fluffy, covered in a gorgeous sateen bedding set and what seemed like a hundred pillows. They noted the stack of towels in the chair, and Miroku saw the surprises in the nightstand.

"Hey, did you see this?" He pulled out one of the condoms that claimed to be neon pink and strawberry flavored. "He really is a pervert!"

Sango slit her eyes as a perverted thought of her own floated across her mind. She chugged the rest of her beer and began to take her hair down. "Get on the bed."

Miroku's head snapped to her voice, noting that tone. The dominatrix was coming. And here he expected this to be such a serious trip since the discovery of the past lives. _She was like this back then too, though._ He had to climb up onto the mountain of a bed using the little step stool that was near the nightstand. By the time he looked back she was in her bra and panties, both of black lace and satin. He settled himself among the multitude of pillows as she rooted around in their overnight bag. She found a set of handcuffs and twirled them on her finger as she turned to face him. "Loose the uniform Mr. Hayashi. We are not at the housing inspector's office."

He had pulled his shirt out when they were out on the back veranda, drinking and talking about the odd experiences they'd all had. Now he unbuttoned the long sleeve linen shirt and threw it aside. She looked at his pants and then back at his grinning face, as if to say, 'Uh, what about the rest?' He quickly shimmied out of them and was now lying on the bed in his boxers that had the flaming eight balls on them, and he still had his socks on. Being satisfied with this, she tossed the handcuffs to him and did this rolling handspring thing that caused her to land on the bed near his knees. She was very strong from all her years as a jujitsu instructor. He was beyond impressed, staring at how she managed to jump up on the tall bed and keep her breasts mostly inside the sexy little black bra. She snatched the handcuffs back from him and motioned for him to loose the boxers. He was positively beaming now. He laid as bare as the day he'd been born, except for the socks, which she allowed him to keep.

"Mr. Hayashi, it's come to my attention that you denied your sweet wife when she asked you to let her cure what ails you. Is this true?" She twirled the handcuffs around her finger and she stood on her knees, staring him down coolly.

"Most true. I am so guilty that I must reek with the scent of my shame." Miroku thanked every holy being in the world for this. Since the children had been born his little leather goddess rarely came out to play. Even though she didn't have the leathers on, this vision of her was just as good, if not better.

"You know what must be done to atone for your crime. You must give yourself entirely to me now." She laughed low and gentle. "I will not go easy on you. You should not have denied her. It will be twice as bad now." She leaned over him, breasts in his face, as she threaded the handcuffs through the brass bars of the headboard (another thing Koga had done on purpose was made sure all the headboards were able to be used as "anchors") and then snugged his wrists firmly inside them. He was now her prisoner until she was finished with him.

She looked around the room for a moment, and then went to the window. She pulled the weighted rod from the bottom of the roller shade, turned and smacked it across the palm of her hand. Miroku's growing erection jumped at the sound. "Do you wish appeal my decision?"

"Absolutely not!" he said loudly with a grin. "I would do the same if she stood before me now. I'd commit murder if it meant I got to see you, executioner." He was trembling as she purposely drew out the waiting time. She approached the edge of the bed and then swatted his calf lightly with the rod. He hissed, just as she expected him to. This was one of his favorite things after all, the slow torture from her alternate self. She swatted the other leg a little more forcefully. He hissed again, his hard on now nearly at its peak. She stood on the little stool and bent to his face where he'd begun to bite his bottom lip. She took his chin and kissed him on the lips, pressing and holding, then releasing them. She opened her mouth and tasted the sweet lager on his breath. Her tongue invaded his mouth and he allowed her to lick the roof there, and he tasted her lip gloss as she decided to give him a sloppy wet kiss. Just when he was about to lose his mind over these deep kisses, she reached down and pinched his nipple as hard as she humanly could. His eyes flew open and he tried to scream but she wouldn't let him. She held him fast in her mouth as she twisted his poor nipple slightly, causing him to shed a single tear of pleasure and pain mixed together.

"Your flesh is weak anyway, what she wants with you is beyond me." The more venomous she talked the better it was for him, and she knew it. "I see in your eyes and on every nerve in your body that you want me. Do you deny this?" He had lost his smile, lost his voice. It was replaced with mad lust. He shook his head yes, that he did deny her claim. "Then you wouldn't mind if I pleasured myself in front of you, right?" She made as if to sit right by his face and hopelessly touch herself. He spit at her. She caught the blob of saliva on her stomach.

"Ohh, you will pay for that." She sprang away from him and returned with the tie he'd ditched in the car on the way over. She grabbed his manhood and tied a complicated and tight knot around the base of his erection and his balls, causing them to turn a pretty shade of purple. Miroku was nearly sobbing in pain, but this is what he wanted from her. He wanted her to use his weak body against him.

"My, I've forgotten my manners. It's against the law to keep someone imprisoned with nothing to eat or drink. Are you hungry my weak prisoner?" This time he nodded yes. She pulled her silky panties down at an agonizingly slow pace, letting him see what he soon would be feasting upon. She stood over him and dropped slowly to her knees, bringing his chin right between her legs. "Let us drink to a successful execution!" She took his beer and gulped down a swig of it, then poured some of it down her perfect stomach where it dribbled in between the folds of her pink lotus flower, and then right into his mouth, where he guzzled happily. "Now feast my prisoner." She scooted closer to him as he nudged his face into the dark recesses of her, licking and nibbling like a man starved. She widened her stance and sunk down a little, making it easier for him to have a wider range of motion with her. She laid back on his chest and rubbed her hair on his still tied genitals, causing him to twitch and shiver beneath her. Suddenly he bit down on her pearl and she bucked against him, crying out in spite of herself. She took the rod and smacked his hip. "Not so greedy boy, there's plenty to go around." His hot tongue ran endlessly over the pearl, stopping to only occasionally dip into her to bring some of her sticky sweetness to his mouth. He'd nibble sometimes or bite down and suck hard, causing her moan and grind against him only to be rewarded with a stinging slap of the shade rod to his hip or thigh. He pulled back and blew a puff of cool air against her tingling flower, and she called his name. Just because he was handcuffed and strangled down below didn't mean he couldn't do his job.

He felt her become needy of finishing this slow and tortuous affair, and so he picked up his pace. The tip of his tongue pulsed against her as he sucked hard on the bud of her lotus, causing her to drop the rod and run her hands over his body beneath her as she whispered his name over and over again. Finally she sat straight up as she came all over his face, her body racking as her honey ran from inside of her. She was mostly silent, and stroked his hair when she was finished. She laid back against him for a moment, catching her breath. Then she was up like a flash, ripping the tie from his undercarriage. Blood flow returned to the now super sensitive area as she slid her slick body onto him, enveloping him in a tight warm hold.

He cried out in pain as she began to ride him furiously. The tingling that had overtaken every sense he had there was almost overpowering. She rode on anyway. It's what she did when he wanted her like this. She reached into her bra and pulled out a set of beads she'd hidden away. She pulled herself off of him, ran the string of beads inside her, collecting the honey that was still flowing freely there, removed them and stuck them one by one inside of Miroku. He flinched as the beads progressed in size, until she gotten the entire strand up in his rectum. She replaced herself on his rock hard granite pillar and rode him like a cowgirl. She reached over his head and released the handcuffs. His hands were suddenly all over her. He managed to pull her bra off without having to unhook it, and his hands flew to her big beautiful breasts. They bounced violently as they heaved their bodies into each other, both engorged with passion and love for one another. She felt him thicken and reached down and pulled gently on the ring that was attached to the beads. "Sango," he groaned. "Come on baby, pull 'em!"

She pulled gently and slowly, each bead stroking his most sensitive spot in his body, and before she'd even reached the third bead, he cried out as he came inside her with such force that she could feel it splatter against her inside, and this feeling caused her to let loose with her own release. The battle of bodily fluids raged inside her womb as Miroku continued to pump into her. She pulled the rest of the beads out more quickly, and finally he laid back, still and gasping for breath.

"Miroku?" She was gasping as well.

"Yes my love?"

"Do you wanna go again?" This was her sweet voice. The dominatrix was gone.

He pulled her into his arms. They laid there, sweaty and sticky in all the right places. They simply laid and breathed and held each other. Without ever answering her, they ended up falling asleep that way, exhausted and spent and so very much in love.

* * *

"So what's this surprise about anyway?" Sesshomaru said as he walked over to the hedgerow under the dining room windows to take a piss.

"Well I know I owe you big time for keeping my dumb ass out of jail, and more than once. I have a couple of friends that I meet with regularly and I thought it'd be nice to treat you to them."

Sesshomaru groaned. "Man I don't want one of those nasty women you're in cahoots with."

Koga looked at him angrily. "Dude, these girls are NOT dirty. In fact I think I'm gonna start dating the one regularly. Ya know, see where it goes."

Sesshomaru came back to where he'd been sitting and took a drink of his beer. "Oh, so the mighty Koga has fallen for someone. It has literally been months since I was with anyone. And magazines just aren't the same. Now that Kohaku knows where my stash is I don't have as many as I used to anyway. And the ones he returns are so foul I gotta throw 'em out."

There was the sound of female voices chatting behind them, coming closer all the while. Koga looked behind him, and then got up and walked to where the voices were coming from. Sesshomaru was nervous, wondering if the girl Koga wanted would be the hottie while the other one would be the biggest let down of the century, looking like Frankenstein's transvestite cousin or something. He looked behind him, amber eyes searching in the darkness. He saw Koga go to the girls and kiss the taller one on the cheek, but kissed the shorter one passionately on the lips. So, the taller one was evidently for him. The short one had long red hair that had been tied into pigtails. She wore a purple camellia flower by her left ear, and she had on a short, fuzzy white jacket and a short sundress on. Despite the platform wedges she had on, she was still pretty short. Sesshomaru wondered about the girl's age, but then threw the thought away, knowing Koga was dumb but not _that_ dumb. He looked at the taller girl. She had a simple short ponytail with a few feathers adorning where the tie was. Her full bangs were covering her brow, but framing her beautiful reddish brown eyes. She had on a set of jade earrings that dangled from her ears, and full, soft pink lips. She wore a pair of embellished jeans with a silvery tank top and simple flip flops. Her toes were neatly manicured and painted black. A tattoo of a butterfly was on her shoulder, and suddenly Sesshomaru caught her scent on the wind. She smelled like good quality lotion and soap; she had the sense not to drown herself in perfume. Her eyes met his and he was instantly vexed. He rose from his chair and went to meet her.

"Sesshomaru, let me introduce you to my special friend Ayame," he indicated the shorter girl, "and her friend Kagura."

He took Ayame's hand and kissed the back of it, causing Koga to smirk at him. Then he turned to Kagura. "It's lovely to meet you both," he said as he gazed into Kagura's eyes while he chastely kissed her hand as well. She smiled at him as she looked him over. He was tall, had tribal tattoos on his face, long silky white hair, a green Led Zep t-shirt, new jeans and barefoot. And those eyes. Those beautiful honey colored eyes. Kagura felt herself wanting to drown in them. Felt herself wanting to be overcome by the big hands and the strong chest… all while staring into those gorgeous eyes.

"Ladies I think we'll go out on the boat if it's all right with you." Koga began walking them to the dock. Sesshomaru suddenly remembered Kohaku out in the lake, swimming himself crazy under the nearly moonless night. He jogged to the end of the little pier.

"Kohaku! Son, you need to go in and go to bed! You're gonna be so sore in the morning!" He had his hands cupped over his mouth yelling out over the water. A few seconds later he heard his son call back to him from some distance. He said he was heading in now. "I'll see you in the morning, get some sleep!"

Kagura stood beside him. "So you've got kids, huh?" Sesshomaru lurched inside. _Total turn off I bet…_

"Yeah, I've got a nineteen year old son and a sixteen year old daughter. Both adopted." He decided he'd leave the part about him becoming a grandfather. She didn't need to know that anyway.

"Is she here too? I think we heard her voice as we walked to the back yard."

"Yeah, she and her husband went for a walk after dinner."

Kagura looked at him. "Husband?"

Sesshomaru sighed. "Yeah, they eloped while I was on a long business trip to the states. She called me before I left from San Diego to tell me I'd gained another son. I wasn't happy to say the least. I had every intention of dissolving the marriage when I came home. But when I returned to my little apartment, I saw that my son-in-law had cleaned the whole place up and had dinner ready for all of us. I couldn't stay mad at them after that. He's actually more responsible than either of my kids."

She smiled at him. "It's good that everything worked out. Makes for a happy little family." She reached out and grabbed his hand. "What do you say we get to know each other a little better? I think Koga's waiting for us to get on the Love Boat."

They both snickered at that, and walked hand in hand to the pontoon boat that sat lazily in its slip. Sesshomaru, ever the gentleman, held Kagura's hand as he helped her aboard, and then climbed on himself. Koga got the motor started with a rumble and then the made their way out the center of the lake, far from the house. He had Hakkaku roll down a huge cooler full of beer, and now they sat chatting quietly under the stars.

"So, I'm ready for some action!" Koga was never good at subtlety. All you need to know about his subtleness can be relayed through the fact that he was planning to blow up the trees in the lake with a mortar launcher. Not too subtle.

Ayame however must have been used to this. She looked at him seductively, half drunk off the three beers she'd chugged down in order to catch up to his mellowness. "What did you have in mind?" She got up and sat in his lap, letting his hands wander over her body. "Something blatantly explicit? Or something more subdued?" She nibbled at his ear.

Sesshomaru sensed this was gonna get out of hand real quick if he didn't do something to set up some kind of boundaries. "Hold up. First thing's first. I will spend time with Kagura, but I don't want you watching me with her."

"Aww come on you dirtball! I thought we could sit side by side up there at the front and watch them both!" He watched as the thought of this seemed to spark something in Sesshomaru's imagination. "Yeah, you're catching on now! I see that sparkle in those evil eyes!"

"Sess," Ayame said, "Kagura and I can even switch off occasionally. It'd be like having two at once."

 _Ohmyfuckinggod_. Sesshomaru trembled at this. How many nights had he dreamed of having two at once? How many times had he carefully thought the logistics and positioning out in his head while his hand clasped the organ causing all the trouble? He felt his blood begin to pound through his body. He could not deny this idea was very intriguing to him. Kagura knelt before him and kissed his denim covered knee. Then she kissed the top of his thigh. She continued her slow ascent up his lower body until she lightly nibbled on the zipper of his jeans. Those honey colored eyes were begging. She was more than willing to oblige him. But not yet.

"Turn the radio on at least, it's too fucking quiet," she said. Koga flipped it on where there was a nice little ditty on called "Sticky Sweet" playing. Ayame kissed Koga and then dragged him to the front of the boat where there were two bench seats that faced each other. If you undid the latches, the two benches laid out into a large bed, intended for sunbathing, but obviously the sun was not out, and these four had a fierce fire to feed. Koga only extended the one bench, and he and Sesshomaru sat side by side with enough room between them that they couldn't touch each other. The girls dropped to their knees and went about the same slow kissing trail that Kagura had already completed once. In tandem, they did the same actions at the same time. They undid the jeans of their men with their teeth, and slid the zippers down with them as well. They ran their hand under the hems of the rock and roll t-shirts, feeling of the men's chests as they slid up their bodies, removing the shirts as they went. Both Koga and Sesshomaru soon forgot the other existed as they became entranced in what their respective women were doing to them.

When Kagura pulled Sesshomaru's shirt over his head she came face to face with those honey eyes and she could only stare as she felt her heart thumping in her chest. He reached up and touched her face gently, and then he seized her in his mouth, passionately kissing her, tasting the chewing gum she'd spit out just after she got out of Ayame's Volkswagen. Cherry flavored, his favorite.

Koga and Ayame had been with each other before, and they knew how to play each other to get the desired effect, so they set about their own routine. She removed his shirt and he instantly went to her neck, sucking and biting her neck, leaving rosy colored splotches on her creamy skin. He pulled her from that fuzzy jacket she had on and ran his fingers along her tiny, yet strong arms. She was a gymnast he'd met at a bar one night, and for some reason she just blew a flame in his belly and made him hot as a match inside. He was unbuttoning the front of her dress. She wore no bra, and her small breasts barely jiggled as he worked to free her from the evil clutches of the department store rag. Koga's mouth went to her tight little pink nipples, licking and sucking quietly and gently as Ayame threw her head back and moaned low. Her long red pigtails tickled his hands that held her muscular back. He growled a little as he went back up to kiss her eager mouth.

Sesshomaru had his hands on Kagura's hips, thumbs hooked in the sides of her string bikini. He softly touched her stomach underneath that silvery tank top. Her skin was warm and silky, and it craved his touch. She broke free from his hot mouth and sat back on his lap, taking his hands from their position and pulling them to her heaving breasts. His big hands cupped them perfectly, and he ran his thumbs over her nipples until they became like the little spicy cherry Red Hots he kept in a candy dish in his office. He heard the other girl moaning as Koga obviously did something she liked, and Sesshomaru and Kagura glanced over to find her with Koga looking into her eyes as he worked his hand under the skirt of her dress. Koga didn't look away, but said, "My friend, you're falling behind! Better catch up!" He pinched her in a sensitive place and she visibly shuddered as she whispered his name. It was enough for him take her breast in his mouth again.

Kagura looked back at Sesshomaru, who looked lost. She smiled and pulled her shirt off and flung it somewhere near the steering wheel. He nearly gasped. He could feel their perfection before she ever bared them to him, but now he was positively in awe. She stood and slowly slid her jeans over her hips. He sat up and helped her pull them off, marveling at how flawless her skin felt under his hands. She wore a hot pink string bikini that had a black skull at the crotch. He put his fingers at her hips and pulled those down as well, revealing a small patch of dark hair. He saw the moist spot on the slinky undergarment as he threw it out in the water. She smiled at him.

Koga looked over and saw Kagura standing there completely naked and getting ready to free Sesshomaru's throbbing shaft. He released Ayame and said, "Song's over, time to switch." Ayame struggled to get her wobbling legs under control as she stood and shimmied out of the dress and the shoes she wore, and she and Kagura traded places, much to Sesshomaru's dismay. As often as he had looked forward to having this experience, he didn't want to share it with this woman who looked to be younger than his daughter.

She went to straddle herself around Sesshomaru's hips when he stopped her and said, "Koga, it's like fucking a kid, I can't do this to her." Koga was too engrossed in Kagura's taste as he made out with her as she ground her naked body against his clothed one.

"I'm no kid. Let me show you how grown up I really am." She went to her knees and freed Sesshomaru's beast from his jeans. It was impossibly huge. She had his eyes locked with hers as she bent and took the tip of it in her mouth. Against his will, he released a low growl, and closed his eyes as he lay his head back and let her work her magic on him. For such a little woman, she was certainly capable of doing things with her mouth that Sesshomaru had never felt before. She was able to swallow the length of him down to almost his base, and she didn't even gag. She licked the underside of it as she stroked him with her spit covered hands. She dipped down and took his clean shaven balls in her mouth and began to hum. It was then he became aware she had a tongue ring because the vibrations seem to resonate from the stud there. Ayame didn't think he'd be able to last long the way he was bucking beneath her, but he held off, waiting until the end of the current song, some ballad that was too sad and sappy for the moment. Sesshomaru's eyes flew open when the song did finally change. "SWITCH!" he hollered out.

Before the song changed, Koga had Kagura on her knees before him. Kagura was never fond of the way Koga handled his women. She felt he was too rough and too needy. He looked over at what Ayame was doing to Sesshomaru and he said, "Do what she's doing." She moved so she could watch her every move, as Koga never took her eyes off Ayame. Switching had proved to be a bad decision and once they switched back Kagura thought they'd abandon the thought of switching again. Finally the honey eyed god called out "SWITCH!" and she nearly ran to him, spitting the taste of Koga's body over the side of the boat.

Sesshomaru grabbed her wrist and looking at her with those begging eyes he said, "Sit." She straddled him and let herself sink down onto him as they both moaned quietly. He felt near to exploding. He hadn't had sex since he and that smoking hot prosecuting attorney from Nagano did it quickly and quietly in his office, and that had been nothing at all like this. They'd both been in such a freaking hurry… This was nice and slow and so enjoyable. And this woman, she was mesmerizing, like he'd seen her face somewhere before, no doubt from his other life in that other time.

"Oh I love this song!" she said suddenly as she picked up the tune. She started to move her hips in rhythm with the music, something that was just nearly enough to push Sesshomaru over the edge. He loved this song too. In fact he had this CD in the Toyota right now. She hummed the tune as he ran his hands over body and clamped his mouth to her breast. Then he broke free from her and spoke along with the song…

"L is for love baby, O is for only you that I'd do. V is for loving virtually everything that you are, E is for loving almost everything that you do. R is for rape me," he jerked her hard down on him, "M is for murder me," he jerked her hard again, causing her to whimper with pleasure as she mouthed the words with him, "A is for answering all of my prayers. N is for knowing your loverman's going to be the answer to all of yours."

She was shaking with desire for him and she bent down and kissed him with all her might. He wrapped his strong arms around her and ravaged her, kissing her down her neck and on her shoulders as he pumped into her. It wasn't long before she began to clench down on him with her first orgasm. She moaned his name as she came in his lap. Those honey colored eyes were looking at her cinnamon colored ones when she opened them again. She saw… love in them? Recognition? She wasn't sure, but it was a sweet emotion, whatever it was. She ran her fingers down his jaw line and looked at Koga. "One to zero, you're falling behind!" she breathed.

Koga growled, picked Ayame up with him still attached to him, turned her so he faced away from him, then stood and plopped her on her knees on the other bench. He worked his way to new depths from behind her, fingers working over time on both her silken bud and on one of her nipples. She held tight to the aluminum railing as he pounded into her tight flesh mercilessly. Her little mews soon turned into long, loud moans and then finally she went silent and still though Koga only pumped into her harder, and then finally she gasped, "One to one!"

Sesshomaru grunted. He gently pushed Kagura off of him and then let her sit where he was and had her lay back on the extended bench width. She looked divine that way, spread open like that and her beautiful big breasts staring up at him. He took his jeans off and put his knees around her. He lowered himself to her, kissing her deeply and passionately, licking her throat and decided to leave a love bite on her neck. She whined in ecstasy as he slowly moved the wet kisses down her body. He eventually went to his knees before her and without warning spread her open with his fingers and plunged his tongue into her wet center. She shuddered as her hips involuntarily bucked against him. He laid his arm across her hips in an effort to keep her still as he kept he spread open with his other hand, all the time licking and caressing her most tender of spots. She pushed herself into his face by reaching behind her and using her arms to push off the back of the bench. He felt her desperate need, and so he lunged into her, pressing hard and working with fervor to please her a second time.

"Aww, mannnnnn… Uhhhh!" Koga erupted into Ayame's dripping wet flower, causing him to lose the game. He shook as he hunched himself over her back, as she was still gently grinding against him, encouraging his seed to come out of him. He kissed her back and continued to stroke her bud of silk until she cried out his name and let her dam loose on him. They broke their connection to wipe off their bodies and watched with interest what Sesshomaru and Kagura were up to. "Jeeze man, how can you do that without popping yet?"

"Iron will," he said as he slurped inside of her. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind and then she raised up on her elbows and screamed his name across the still lake as she coated his face with that sticky sweetness. Before she was even finished with this latest release, he had jerked her up and put her on her knees next to Ayame. "Kiss her Ayame. Kiss like I would kiss her." Ayame turned Kagura's face to her and kissed her forcefully, like it was the last kiss either of them would ever have. Sesshomaru pumped into her over and over as he watched the two of them, and then he growled, "Now kiss me. Give me everything she gave you!" She kissed Sesshomaru with an equal frenzy until he stopped, concentrating on getting his own release. Ayame knelt down and got under Sesshomaru and Kagura, held her tongue out and licked his heavy nuts as they slapped back and forth, occasionally hard enough to slap Kagura's tender silken bud and make her squeal with delight. She licked at Kagura's soaked hole, tasting them both at the same time. She found this most erotic and began to touch herself. Kagura began to pant with the next orgasm and Sesshomaru roared as he burst inside of her. Ayame was pulled out of the way as Koga left her on her back and drove into her once more, and the both of them came very quickly.

All four of them were panting and gasping for breath. Koga opened one of the belly boxes and threw everyone a towel. Sesshomaru collapsed on Kagura's back. His heart was thrumming so hard inside of his chest he thought it would burst. "Koga," he gasped, "we're now officially even for everything. Lady Kagura here is a most proficient lover."

Koga nodded at him. "Don't mention it." He weakly tossed Sesshomaru a beer, which he held against his face before opening it. Eventually he pulled himself away from Kagura and put his jeans back on. She found her clothes and just held them next to her, refusing to believe that she had come three times before he came once. That had never happened to her with anyone before. He sat down on the bench again, exhausted, and he motioned for her to come sit next to him. She walked to him and he put his arm around her as she curled up next to him after she put only her tank top on. His big hands ran softly up and down her side, gently lulling her into a calm doze.

Koga and Ayame were cuddling at the back of the boat. It seemed they both now needed what little privacy was afforded to them. Sesshomaru turned to her and whispered, "Is it too soon for me to ask you to marry me?" Kagura opened her eyes and looked at him.

"You don't even know me, Sesshomaru. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the offer, but… We don't know each other."

His honey colored eyes bore into her very soul. "I know you feel it, Kagura. I knew it when I looked into your eyes back at the house. Do you ever feel like you came from another place? Like you lived a past life?"

She leaned in close and whispered to him quietly, "So you've figured it out. Buddha would be proud."

Sesshomaru asked her again, almost silently, "Will you marry me Kagura, you sorceress of the wind?"

She kissed him gently. "Yes."

* * *

InuYasha and Kagome were in the throes of their passion when she suddenly tried to stop him.

"You know I'm really fertile still right?" she gasped against his shoulder as he bore into her.

"Yes, and I don't care."

"I care." She was unable to stop rocking against him though.

"Shh, I'm trying to fuck you here," he hissed her as he thrust deeper into her.

"Honey, we can't have any more babies. Not right now anyway." She still didn't stop and gave him no sign that he should either. She suddenly moaned out under him, rolling her head to one side where he bent down and licked her. He licked the spot that should have bore his mark. She whimpered a little.

"Seriously InuYasha. We have to stop."

He slowed to a stop within her. "Why are you freaking out?"

"I don't want to have three more babies! I don't want to have six children in diapers!"

"Uggg! Always worrying now! Can't you just relax," he kissed her neck, "and enjoy," kiss, "this?" kiss. She was putty in his hands and they both knew it. He slowly started rocking inside of her again. He kissed her neck again. She started to shiver, and he kept kissing her where the mark should have been. She felt her climax ripping through her body, her first one since the babies were born, and she pitched and yawed against him, covering him in her salty juices.

"Alright, on your knees now." He let up off of her.

"What?" She seemed shocked that he wanted to continue his efforts.

"On your knees. You know, that other position you like."

"InuYasha…"

"Will you just do it? I got a plan!" He helped her from her sitting position and turned her around and bent her over. At first she protested because he was entering the same place he just left. "Don't panic, Kagome, I've got this under control for the moment."

He thrust slowly and deeply into her, stirring her again, causing her to become even more slick than she just was. He was coating himself, and then as gently as he could he slid himself out of the passage her babies had traveled and into her rectum, going slow and easy.

"InuYasha!" she nearly screamed. "That HURTS!"

"Will you shut up? Just relax!"

"But it hurts!"

"It hurt when I took your virginity too, but it felt better after a while didn't it?"

She couldn't argue with that. Before she'd gotten pregnant, she and he were practically locked at the hips. This had been true for both of her lives. "Alright, but be easy. It really does hurt."

He did as she asked, going slow and easy. He was pretty slick when he entered her, so they weren't having any issues with that. The problem was just his massive size and her not so massive space.

"Is it getting better?" he asked her as he felt himself needing to release his seed, and soon.

"Yeah, actually it is a little better." She was either going numb or she was stretching better than she thought.

"I gotta come soon, baby. My balls are turning blue here."

She buried her face in the pillow and groaned. "Ok."

InuYasha had a thought, and then he reached down under her and toyed with that little pink pearl of nerves right at the top of her split. All the sudden she was singing a different tune. He started pushing into in earnest now, and she writhed and moaned below him, forgetting all about the dull ache that had possessed her backside. Finally she let herself spasm against his hand, and shortly thereafter he blasted his hot sugar deep inside of her, but nowhere near where she could come up pregnant again. He slumped over her, his hair tickling her back; she shivered and clamped down on him.

He laughed weakly. "Hey, shit me out."

"You're deranged!" He felt her try to pull off of him.

"Come on it'll be funny."

"Seriously, just get out of there and go take a shower!"

He pulled out of her as slowly and easy as he could, noting the streaks of red on his rapidly shrinking organ, and left her to go clean the mess of this new love off of himself.

* * *

"Harder!"

There was silence.

"Harder!"

Silence again.

"Shippo, it's gotta be harder! Do it like you mean it!"

He grunted.

"Almost there!" she gasped.

A snarl and then a gasp.

"SHIPPOOOOO!"

He growled, gripping her tighter than he could ever remember to keep her from thrashing about. Finally she stopped and she was a shivering pile of mush in his arms. Unbeknownst to them, Ayame and Kagura had heard this exchange as they walked quietly out to the veranda. They looked at each other and silently giggled, continuing on to where they were expected to be.

He released the flesh at her neck, tasting the blood he'd drawn from her there, and understood now why she kept telling him that he marked this way as they laid with each other the first time; he found the taste of her blood in his mouth to be very erotic. She had taken him out to the woods and convinced him to bite down and mark her where her old mark was on her other body, the body that was still in the Sengoku period.

"Rin, that looks like it could get infected, are you sure you wanted me to do that?"

She spun around and said, "Does this answer your question?" She kissed him as his hands went to her body. Just as they had finished this little exchange they heard Kohaku running through to the house.

"Hey, where's the fire?" she called out to him.

"Heh, Dad's got a date with some chick. They were going out on the boat, so he kicked me out of the lake." He grinned. "I think they needed some privacy."

"WAY TO GO DAD!" she yelled in spite of herself. Shippo pulled her back to his face and they continued what they came out here to do, and since these two are still underage for our eyes, we will simply have to assume what they did after Shippo replaced the missing mating mark.*

 

(*Was written before I was comfortable writing lolicon/shotacon...)


	17. Calling to You

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. Oh, and Hikari, she's mine too. ****

* * *

Lyrics to _Kashmir_ property of Led Zeppelin

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream  
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been  
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen  
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed…

* * *

**10-9-10**

* * *

"Izumi," Shinju was whispering in her ear, shaking her lightly. "Izumi, something's wrong." Her twin smacked her, wanting to go back to sleep. So Shinju pinched her hard on the arm.

"Ouch! Why'd you do that for Shinju!" Shinju quickly covered Izumi's mouth as she held her finger to her lips to shush her. Her loud voice caused Kaede to stir, but she didn't wake.

"Don't yell like that!" she whispered. Kichirou rolled over and looked at them with sleepy eyes and a pacifier that was working dreamily in his mouth. "Do you feel the energy? Something's not right. Buddha's not happy about something."

Izumi yawned and wiped the sleep from her dreamy eyes. "What are you talking about? We did everything that he asked us to do." She yawned again. "Everything is as it should be now. Mama and Papa are together again and they're gonna have another baby, Oji-sama has found his bride… What could be wrong?"

Shinju sat cross legged in the fold-away cot, tapping her upper lip in thought. "I don't know. But I definitely get the feeling Buddha's upset."

"What should we do Ju-ju," Kichirou asked. His blue eyes were practically sparkling in the early morning sunlight that streamed in the open window.

"I think we need to go pray. Ask him what's wrong and what we should do." She closed her eyes, reaching out with her senses. "I think everyone is still asleep. But it won't be long before people start waking up, so we need to go now."

The oracle twins and their powerful baby brother quietly got out of their bed and crept towards the door. They found their way quietly outside where the morning sun filtered through the trees and dappled the dewy grass with splotches of golden light. They made their way to the swing set that had what looked like a little tree house attached. Now away from prying eyes, they pulled out Miroku's long string of prayer beads, the one that used to keep his Kazanna in check, and stretched it out so that they all held on to it and began chanting a mantra. They were soon encased inside a shining iridescent bubble, and they conversed the morning away with Buddha as freely as they talked with their mother or their Oba.

* * *

When Sesshomaru awoke his head was pounding. _Holy fuck, how much did I drink last night?_ he wondered as he took stock of his surroundings. He felt the fluctuating surface beneath him and realized they were still on the boat. Suddenly the memories of their salacious night came flooding back, and he felt himself involuntarily stiffen a bit at the thought of sort of taking two women at once. He smiled, in spite of his horrid hangover, and then looked to his right where Kagura had snuggled into chest. At some point in the night she must have taken her hair down, and it was longer than he expected it to be. It spilled down her shoulders in a dark brown wavy mass. The silvery tank top shimmered in the early dawn, and she had covered her bottom half with the towel that Koga had given her to clean herself up with. She sighed happily in her sleep and Sesshomaru kissed the top of her head. He didn't want to move; his head threatened to explode if he did, and he was really diggin' having this beautiful woman, his bride to be, lying on his chest. But if he didn't, he thought his bladder would explode, and since he couldn't relieve his pounding headache he decided to at least drain the lizard. He tried to move away from Kagura as gently as possible so as not to disturb her. She moaned angrily as she felt her face touch the vinyl of the bench, but he bent and whispered, "I'll be right back." She seemed to sigh heavily, but was soon lightly snoring again.

After he peed off the bow of the boat, he felt the boat rocking as Koga got up and pulled a huge bottle of aspirin out of one of the belly boxes. He sat it on the dash of the steering console and then pulled out a coke that was in the bottom of the beer cooler, which was now mostly water. They'd drank almost two cases of beer out on the boat alone, and now there were three lonely bottles left, and of course the five remaining cokes. Koga opened the aspirin bottle and shook out four of them, and then offered the bottle to Sesshomaru, who shook out three. They cracked their cokes open in silence and made a 'cheers' between them and swallowed the pills down, a morning toast to a fantastic night.

Ayame was still naked and sprawled languidly across the back seat. There was an indentation from where Koga's earring had buried itself in her breast as they slept. He dug around in yet another hidey hole and brought out a large beach towel and covered her with it. He kissed her lightly on the lips and ran his finger over her cheek. He then turned back to his friend and tossed him an oatmeal cream pie. "Hope you like Little Debbies, it's about the only thing I eat in the morning."

Sesshomaru scarfed the treat down in three bites and asked for another. It was really peaceful out here on the water. The birds were singing and flying about; the fish were jumping in different places all around them. It was loud and quiet all at the same time. The cloudless sky had allowed them a perfect view of the orange and red sunrise, and Koga and Sesshomaru sat in the bucket seats at the very front, letting their women sleep a little longer before firing up the motor and heading in for a real breakfast of Hikari's making.

Suddenly he looked at Koga and said, "I asked her to marry me."

Koga nodded. "I heard. You think she's from our other life then?"

Sesshomaru closed his eyes, remembering very distinctly what Kagura's Sengoku form looked like, from the feathers in her hair to the kimono she wore to the pattern on her fan. He remembered her eyes were much redder than these cinnamon colored ones, but that she'd been just as feisty as she'd been last night. When he knew her before, he was his old hard ass self, incapable of feeling anything but a small bit of compassion for her. And then when she had died and he was unable to save her, he felt a part of himself turn black and die with her. Maybe he felt love for her then too, but it had buried itself so damn deep that his heart couldn't acknowledge the feeling. Regardless, he decided that if he was being given a second chance, with her as well as his kids, then he wasn't going to waste any time letting the same thing happen twice. He seized the moment, and she agreed to be his bride.

Turning back to Koga, he said, "She seems to know a lot more about it than we do. I think it's imperative that she be allowed to talk to the others when we get back. Koga, I think she's different that the rest of us in all this. She was a wind goddess if I remember correctly. If she's a god then she might be outside of time on all this."

"Ahhh, then maybe she knows our past selves then, I see where you're going with this," he took another chug from his coke can. "Yeah, I think you're right. She could prove to be very helpful right now."

Sesshomaru suddenly got to his feet and walked to check on her, then he took his jeans off, ran to the end of the boat and cannonballed into the lake. The cold water seemed to break his headache immediately, and soon he was nearly hit in the face by a barrage of plastic bottles. It seemed Koga was prepared for everything as Sesshomaru grabbed one of them. There was a bottle of shampoo, conditioner and body wash floating near him. Without warning, he saw Kagura somersaulting off the end into the water as well, and they played like two kids for almost an hour, bathing each other and swimming around. Sesshomaru smiled broadly at her. It was the happiest he'd ever been in his either of his lives.

* * *

Kaede woke to find the twins and their brother gone, but was relieved when she heard their playful laughter ringing from the swing set. She checked on the infants, who were awake but calm, and she knocked on Kagome and InuYasha's door so they could come and help her get them changed and dressed and then fed. Once the babies had their little tummies full, the three of them went downstairs and deposited them into a pack-n-play that was set up just outside the dining room. Hikari and Ginta were already up, working two stoves to bring the first meal to the table. Hakkaku went about setting the table and taking drink orders, while Kagome offered to help in any way she could, only to be shooed away to the veranda to wait until it was ready. She found InuYasha lighting his first cigarette of the day and listening with a smiling face to Miroku's clan of children as they played.

"Won't be long and ours will be that big." He blew a smoke ring. "Then we gotta start on making more." He waggled his eyebrows at her like Groucho Marx and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Ha!" she said as she took a sip of her coffee. She sat down next to Kaede on the patio swing and they chatted about their shared love of old movies, and particularly how this house and grounds was so like Tara in Gone with the Wind. InuYasha lost himself in his morning smoke, watching Miroku's kids. He heard the sound of an Evinrude rumbling across the lake, growing louder as it approached closer. He watched the pontoon pull into the dock, only to see a bare chested Sesshomaru escorting a pretty lady off the boat, with Koga and what looked to be a twelve year old following close behind. "Oh shit, Kags, check that out!" Sesshomaru had his arm around her shoulders and she had one hand in his back pocket and the other resting on his stomach. They both looked like they'd been swimming already; their hair was still pretty soaked. Then he said something to her and they both laughed, then he kissed her intensely. InuYasha was on the edge of his seat. "Are you seeing this!"

"Doesn't she look familiar to you?" Kagome had that far away look in her eyes again, like she was being haunted by some kind of dreamy memory. Kaede agreed with her; the woman did look eerily familiar.

"Who cares! I bet he was out on that boat all night with her!" He laughed as he thought about that and took a drag off his cigarette. "Wonder what that was like."

Kagome smiled as she scoffed at him. "You're worse than Rin with her celebrity magazines. Besides, it appears he's bringing her over here. Watch your mouth, got it?"

He crossed his eyes at her and stuck his cigarette in his lips, intending to keep them shut as Sesshomaru brought Kagura over to the little gathering of friends. He was smiling broader than InuYasha had ever seen. Everyone on the veranda, including the children still at the swing set, stopped to look at his face, how transformed he seemed.

"Morning everyone! You guys remember Kagura right?"

Kagome's eyes lit up, she remembered that name! "I knew you looked familiar but I couldn't place you."

InuYasha was looking at Kagura, trying hard to remember her. "I'm sorry Kagura, but either that part of my mind hasn't awakened yet or maybe I'm just not having any memories of you."

"Just a sec, I know what will trigger your memory." She reached over to a plant on the patio and pulled a section of a fan palm from it. She pulled her hair back and said in her nastiest voice, "You can't hit me with your Kaze no Kizu, I am the wind! Dance of Blades!" Without her real fan, no blades came, but InuYasha leaped out of the way just as if she really had thrown them at him. He was reaching for a sword that wasn't there, and had never been there in this time period. He was reaching for Tetsusaiga. He seemed to shake his head slightly, as if to register the world around him. He looked up at her as she was laughing. "Kagura. I remember now. Sesshomaru, how could you sleep with the enemy like that!"

Sesshomaru laughed heartily. "She's not the enemy anymore. Naraku's dead, she's free. Besides, I think I should be sleeping with my fiancé don't you?"

They all gaped at this. The tough as nails defense attorney, who had only adopted his two children at the insistence of his father, had never had a meaningful relationship with any woman ever. It had always been one night stands with people he met through conventions, business trips or cases he'd tried. Now all the sudden he was engaged to the wind sorceress Kagura, who seemed to have no trouble recalling what she was in their previous life. "You're getting married?" Kagome asked. "Oh my goodness, there's so many plans to be made!"

"Stop right there, Kagome," Sesshomaru interrupted with a soft smile. "We're going to do it right here today under the eyes of the monk."

Miroku and Sango came out with a glass of orange juice each, and he said, "Who needs my services?"

Kagome's eyes closed in thought. Then she remembered very faintly the day she married InuYasha in the previous time. It was the day after he'd marked and deflowered her, a demon wedding that needed no witnesses. Miroku had officiated for the human wedding, and then she moved from Kaede's hut into their house that InuYasha had built for them as he waited for her to return. She nodded her head as she remembered now that Miroku was a Buddhist monk in his past life, and had no reason to doubt that he still couldn't be one now.

Sango gasped, "Kagura! What are you doing here?"

"Getting married evidently." Her cheeks blushed at the thought of it all, showing up at that dirtball Koga's house only to find the honey eyed god she'd lost when she died. After an insane night he'd asked her to marry him. She thought for sure he'd forget in the morning, like so many other drunks have done before him. But when she jumped in the water to bathe with him, he snatched her up and covered her in kisses as they made love in the lake. He had asked her again, in the light of day and without the alcohol in his blood, if she would take him as the depraved man he was with his sloppy smart-mouthed kids, crappy little apartment with one bathroom and his beat up Toyota. She had been so moved that she actually started crying, something she had only remembered doing once in any of her lifetimes, and that was when she had died at his feet in the Sengoku era.

"To Sesshomaru?" Miroku and Sango exclaimed at the same time.

"Why is it such a surprise to everyone?" Sesshomaru asked. "I'm no scrub ya know!" He looked offended.

"It's just so sudden is all! And she came out of nowhere!" Sango went to Kagura and hugged her. "Congratulations!" The others followed her example and Sesshomaru asked the monk if he could do the joining right now, right before breakfast.

"I don't know, I'm not licensed here to do legal ones, and I don't have the proper ceremony guide with me."

Suddenly Shinju, Izumi and Kichirou came off the swing set and went to them. "Why don't we wait until after our breakfast Oji-sama," Izumi said. "Then we can get it done fairly quickly. I know the words."

Kagura knelt next to her and hugged her tightly. As she slept in Sesshomaru's arms on the quiet lake, Buddha had told her in her dream last night that the little girls that had been born in the Sengoku Jidai would know who she was immediately, and would use her in guiding them back to the Higurashi shrine to retrieve Jakken. He had told her that the adults would not believe the children, and she would have to be their adult voice.

As they waited for Hikari and Ginta to begin serving breakfast, she told them about what happened to her after she died. "I became the wind. I blew over the earth for miles and miles, circling the globe hundreds of times. It felt so powerful to be free from Naraku and all the sadness and anger he'd put into the world. I blew high and low and in every place I could. Then one day I heard a voice calling out to me. It was Buddha. He said he had something very important for me to do and that I would simply fall asleep and wake up in a human form. When I woke up I was in a bed in a Tokyo high rise apartment with Ayame, and I had two complete sets of memories."

"We have two sets as well, but we can't seem to remember the first set like we remember this set," Kaede told her. "It's like the first set was covered in layers and layers of dust, and sometimes something sticks out in the mind and drives ye crazy until it becomes clearer. Sometimes one of us will be able to remember very vividly something that another one of us can barely recall at all."

"Yes, like my vivid memory of the night InuYasha marked me," Kagome agreed. "I can remember the words he said to me, the position of the stars in the sky, even the smell of his hair. He could only recall a single sentence." They all nodded that all had been feeling this strange phenomenon around them, pulling them closer and closer together.

"I have a feeling Buddha is not yet finished with us. I think there's something more to come, but it may take a little more time for his plans to become clear. Just everyone keep an open mind and if something strange starts bothering you, we should address it at once." Kagura took Shinju and Izumi's hands. "Do you know what Buddha is telling us to do yet?"

Shinju spoke plainly in front of them, sensing it was time they remembered how gifted she and her siblings were. "No. He only keeps saying that something's still askew and he hasn't figured out where he made his mistake. He's instructed us to wait here until he has an answer."

Miroku and Sango looked surprised to hear their four year old daughter's vocabulary. _Must be all those Baby Einstein DVD's I've been getting them,_ Miroku thought.

"He says he's got lots of help down there in going over the star charts. He says they will find the error and correct it." Izumi took the beads and handed them to Kagura. "He says for you to hold these with Oji-sama when it is time for you to marry him."

Miroku felt something from the past working loose in his mind. Something that was even foggier than those first set of memories he had. "Kagura, can you tell me if you know something that might have happened to me?"

She looked at him. "I will tell you what I can, monk. What do you want to know?"

"You were the wind right? I can remember feeling the wind when I was drinking once, back in the first set of memories. Do you remember ever seeing me drinking really heavy?"

Kagura's eyes turned sad. "Monk, I was with you as the wind. I was there swirling through that stunted plum tree in your front yard. You had six bottles of sake by your side and you managed to drink five of them before you passed out. I tried to blow into your face to revive you. I tried to blow the plums from the boughs to hit you and revive you. You… You drank yourself to death in the first life."

No one even breathed. Miroku, one of their closest friends from both lives, had died? And by the hands of sake no less? The children seemed unaffected by this. They had retained their memories. After a few minutes of this agonizing silence, Hikari called from inside the house that the meal was ready, and they all slowly filed in to eat. The Yamada's served out hot miso soup, fluffy white rice, seasoned nori, rolled omelets, sausage and they had some chilled cups of yogurt for those who cared to have some. At that time no one felt much like eating. Kagura felt it was her duty to steer the mood in a better direction since she seemed to be the one who killed it.

"Listen, Miroku. You died in the first life, but do any of you remember seeing Buddha?" Everyone looked at her as if she were crazy. "When Miroku died, Buddha had told me that he used your death to right all the wrongs that had happened to all of you. All of you had a hand in defeating the single greatest threat to humanity Japan has ever known. You were heroes of our nation and champions of our people. Buddha had a special place for you in his heart. And it hurt him to see that Miroku had drank himself to death over a petty argument he had with Sango."

"What? I caused him to kill himself?" Sango cried out.

"No, Sango. It was so complicated. I had a hard time keeping it straight myself. You said something to him that cut him to the core and he divorced you. You left and then he felt guilty for having kicked you out, so he fell into a sake bottle. You ran away as far as you could, and got hooked on pure opium." She tactfully left out the endless nights with Ginta. "Both of you fell into vices that you couldn't break, and that was what killed you both, in the first life. Buddha saw how much everyone was affected by this, and so he set out to fix everything that had happened. But he couldn't do what he needed to do with your lives unless he brought you all to heaven with him and started you in a different era. He chose this age because it is where Kagome is originally from."

Kichirou spoke up. "Remember the bright light?" They all looked at the boy in the high chair. "Bright, bright, bright, light?" No one seemed to remember this at all, except of course the oracle twins, the mystical son and the wind goddess.

"Why don't we discuss it later. It doesn't matter anyway, we're all alive and happy now, right? We're all sitting her about to devour this meal that Ginta and Hikari and Hakkaku have worked hard on all morning, right? Today is a happy day!" She smiled across at everyone. "Let's thank Buddha for our blessings." Everyone bowed their heads in a moment of silence and then Kichirou said, "Let's eat!" Everyone tittered at that, and they all began to eat in earnest.

* * *

Jakken stood at the street level just below the Higurashi shrine. He had seen almost a thousand years of life. He was so tired. His heart had beat over 47,304,000,000 times, he had slept over 2,190,000 hours, and he had raised over 400,000 orphans in the 6,570,000 hours he was awake. Not all of them survived of course; some were brought in so malnourished and sick that he simply could not do enough for them in the time he had them. Some died of broken hearts and some ran away. But Jakken had been true to his Lord's word, and the orphanage was one of the oldest and best known facilities in all of Japan. It was still running today, being headed up by one of the ancestors of the orphanage's first refugees. Jakken had very little to do with the place anymore. He made sure the money was always there to keep it running as his now antique note had said, and he lived in a part of the gardens that was off limits to the children. He was now so faded that he didn't even look green anymore. He looked like he'd been dried out in the sun like a raisin; faded and wrinkled and so old he had gone to walking with a cane, leaving the staff of two heads in a corner of his room. When Star Wars came out, and the second movie introduced Yoda to the world, he swore they were modeling the creature after himself. He had played with the idea of suing George Lucas but then threw the thought aside knowing he couldn't ever come forward to go to trial looking the way he did. But every time the movie was on at the orphanage, he cringed a little inside.

He was looking forward to seeing his own children again, Rin and Kohaku. He had not been able to tell them goodbye when Sesshomaru had his epiphany and left. The old toad reached inside his hooded jacked and clasped the charms that were now in a glass locket on a fine gold chain. The pearl disc and the brass disc were unspoiled and as pristine as the day they'd been given to him. He was looking forward to tomorrow night. Now that he had the right place, he went up the long flight of steps. No one was home and so he laid himself to rest in the well house, waiting for tomorrow at midnight, waiting to be reunited with his family.

* * *

Izumi had Sesshomaru and Kagura hold both their hands up in between them. She wrapped the string of beads around their fingers and wrists and began to chant a mantra with mudras that Shinju imitated opposite her on the other side of the two lovers. They stopped suddenly and Izumi said, "Sesshomaru, is it your intention to claim this woman of the wind as your own?"

"Yes."

"Will you keep her close in mind, close in heart and close in spirit, even when she is not close at hand?"

"Yes."

"Will you treat her with love, honor and respect?"

"Yes."

She turned to his bride. "Kagura, do you allow this Lord of the Western Lands to claim you as his own?"

She smiled. "Yes, Izumi."

"Do you accept and return the sentiments he has expressed to you this day, before these witnesses gathered here?"

"With all my heart, Izumi."

"Do you intend to love, honor and respect him as he does you?"

"With every action and every word, I do, Izumi."

Izumi and Shinju chanted a pretty mantra and spun in circles as they moved to change places with each other. Izumi spoke again. "Buddha himself wrote this love on the stars. It is with his blessing that he bids you to embark on your journey together. Man, greet your wife! Woman, greet your husband!"

The validity of this union was not questioned. Miroku said he had a friend who could back date marriage licenses and paperwork, and Sesshomaru said he could force the legality of them if it came to that. However, he wasted no time in sealing his vows to her with a deep kiss. They knelt so Izumi could unwrap their hands as Rin and Kohaku cheered wildly as the others clapped and whistled. They ran to their new mother bearing hugs and kisses for her as the others shook hands with Sesshomaru and clapped him on the shoulder and congratulated him for finally settling down. It was a happy time for all of them, and the last thing Buddha allowed to happen for them in the country. They would need to be leaving tomorrow to go back to Tokyo in order to meet Jakken in time. The girls took Kagura aside and explained to her that she was to mate Sesshomaru before they left, that it was imperative that she become full of his seed before they left for Jakken. Kagura wondered why it was so important, but didn't question this. She was looking forward to it anyway, and if Buddha had deemed it important, then they should get started right away shouldn't they? The two little girls and the grown woman conversed for what seemed like a long time, and then they finally announced to the others what Buddha's plans were.

"Buddha has told the children that we are to relax and not think on our memories any further. He says it will all become clear after tomorrow night, and for us to enjoy the time we've been allotted here. In other words, break out the jet skis and the swim suits, let's live it up!"

Everyone seemed to be so happy and cheerful, and set about finding something to do that was fun and pleasurable. Of course Sesshomaru and Kagura went into the house to claim the bed that they didn't use the night before and set about Buddha's work of filling Kagura with his seed, a fun and pleasurable task indeed. Miroku took the kids out to the dock, put them in life jackets and threw them out into the water, where they played nearly all day with their loving father. Kohaku, Rin and Shippo, and Kaede took a sea-doo and bounded through the waters, racing and spraying each other with long, tall rooster tails of water. Hikari, Kagome and Sango sunbathed on the veranda, while Koga, his brothers and InuYasha all went hunting out in the deeper part of the woods, with nothing but their bare hands, trying to satisfy an urge so deep in their bodies it seemed like instinct. The infants cooed and laughed quietly in their pack-n-play that Kagome had set up under a shady tree, and all was right with the world.

That evening, there was another huge barbeque feast, and then that night, they all slept quietly and peacefully as they awaited their second audience with Buddha.


	18. The Long and Winding Road

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. Oh, and Hikari, she's mine too. ****

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm very partial to Sesshomaru and Kagura pairings, have been the entire time I've been an InuYasha fan. Not that I don't entertain the idea that he grooms Rin into his being his perfect mate, or that he somehow steals Kagome from InuYasha, these are good premises too. Anyways, I was trying to think of a good song to put here, and I came across in my memory a fantastic song by Meatloaf called _For Crying Out Loud_. These snippets are referring to their early relationship, during the canon. This chapter has some important things happening to them both, so I guess it's appropriate. Enjoy!

I was lost till you were found  
But I never knew how far down  
I was falling  
Before I reached the bottom

I was cold and you were fire  
And I never knew how the pyre  
Could be burning  
On the edge of the ice field

For crying out loud  
You know I love you

I was damned and you were saved  
And I never knew how enslaved  
I was kneeling  
In the chains of my master

I could laugh but you could cry  
And I never knew just how high  
I was flying  
Ah with you right above me

For pulling me away when I'm starting to fall  
For revving me up when I'm starting to stall  
And all in all for that I want you

For taking and for giving and for playing the game  
For praying for my future in the days that remain  
Oh Lord for that I hold you

Ah but most of all  
For crying out loud  
For that I love you

* * *

**10-10-10**

* * *

The morning began gloomy and stayed that way all afternoon as the rain beat down for hours and hours. The house itself seemed consumed by the nervous energy of its inhabitants as they tried to occupy their time, from games to light conversation to food and even prayer. The oracle children said they would be fasting and in prayer until it was time to leave, and so they dodged between the raindrops and were left to the peaceful quietness of their private little clubhouse on the swing set. Miroku and Sango stood with their arms around each other's waist as they gazed out the patio door and watched an iridescent bubble expand and contract within its little wooden confines, admiring how much power their innocent babies held. InuYasha and Kagome spent most of their time with their infants, who seemed unusually restless. Tsukiko's tiny magenta stripes seemed to be pulsating at times, growing wide and then narrowing again, and Haruko and Ashoka's ears and noses twitched about constantly. Upon being set in the modern era, InuYasha and his children had lost their dog ears and fangs, Sesshomaru and Tsukiko seemed to be the only ones to retain any of their demon features in the form of the stripes, which Sesshomaru had always told anyone who questioned them that they were religious markings he'd been given when he was a child. Tsukiko's were passed off as birthmarks.

The day wore on slowly. Finally the sun broke through the heavy clouds, and the oracles returned to the house. Izumi and Shinju informed the others that there should be a feast, and that Buddha had told them to leave the Yamada Inn one hour after dark. The adults no longer questioned these children and their divine knowledge, and so they did as was asked of them. Ginta and Hikari were kicked out of the kitchen by Sango and Kagome, who had had enough of sitting around and being waited on endlessly, and they cooked a meal as good as any other that had been had at the house so far. They lounged about, trying to relax in spite of the approaching journey to Tokyo. No one except for the oracles and Kagura knew what to expect. Everyone was on edge.

The twins left their baby brother to rest on the big ottoman in the sitting room as they went to find Kagura. Together, the three of them prayed in the bedroom Kagura and Sesshomaru had shared while Sesshomaru watched from the sitting chair, the rags all used an in a laundry hamper by the door. Their fingers moved endlessly from one enchanting mudra to another, all while chanting a quiet manta in whispered harmony. Suddenly they all ceased and were still. Kagura spoke to no one, or at least no one that Sesshomaru could see.

"Yes, Buddha. It would appear that way… Yes… Hmm, are you sure that's wise?" Sesshomaru listened quietly and intently. _I guess it's okay for one god to question another…_ he thought. "Oh, yes I see now… Then that only leaves one loose end then… I'm sure it will work itself out when we get there… Yes we will leave shortly."

"Buddha," Shinju interrupted. "This cannot be undone this time, this is the final attempt… It is as you say. Regardless I will do as I must." Sesshomaru was in awe of this tiny child, using words and courage that were so much bigger than herself. He noticed her hand that held Miroku's short set of beads was trembling. So much bravery…

Kagura continued. "We shall make our way to you Buddha… You want I should tell him now? But I thought you would want to tell him… It is how you say, I will tell him now. What about Miroku and Sango? I see. Very well, we will depart now." The three of them chanted a short mantra and seemed to wake up as the chant ended.

Kagura got immediately to her feet and told Sesshomaru, "Stay put, I'll be right back." He heard her and the girls practically gallop down the stairs and tell everyone to get packed up. It was time to go to Tokyo.

* * *

Jakken stirred awake just after dusk. It had taken him so long to get to the shrine, what with all the walking he'd had to do, and given the fact he felt older than some guy named Methuselah, he had slept for nearly a whole day. He got up sometime in the night and killed himself a couple of pigeons that were roosting in the top of the well house and ate, and then he'd gone back to sleep for another fifteen hours. When he awoke this last round, he pulled an ancient note from inside his hoodie and reread it for the millionth time. _Meet us in five hundred years at midnight on the date of October 10, 2010._ Today was the day. Finally, after what seemed to be eons of time, that magical date had finally arrived. And what was even better, was it was already dark outside now. He wouldn't have to wait but a few more hours to be reunited with his family. _Remember, it will be as if we had just left._ He could picture Rin in his mind now; her long dark hair, the new yellow kimono with the purple flowers on it that she favored now as a teenager, and her familiar gapped smile. He couldn't wait to throw his short arms around her leg and hug her. And Kohaku, with his broad shoulders and sinewy physique… He was anxious to see his stout boy as well.

Jakken had been very much like a mother, at least to Rin if not both of the children. He had not been given a chance to tell them goodbye the day everyone left. The people in Edo could not imagine where everyone had gotten off to, and actually they had chalked it up to the fact that the village was so disrespectful when it came to Sango's funeral pyre. Being ashamed of what they'd done, they paid their respects to Miroku and Sango's graves at the top of the hill, and then left Edo altogether. Edo in the feudal era had been abandoned just days after the band was absorbed into heaven. As Jakken traveled the country looking for orphans, he always made his way back through Edo somehow, if only to check on the buildings, and of course to see if there was any sign that the people he knew so well had returned. After a few years the huts began to crumble, and all that remained were the few Shinto priests who watched over the shrine. A few years after that and it had all faded into his memory, and he went there no more.

Until yesterday. He had come back to find this modern age had been built on top of the ruins of the heroes' home. The old well was still strong and sturdy as it had always been though, and now he sat himself with the doors to the well house open and on the top step looking down at it. Eventually he lay back and dozed, and the well began to emit a faint blue light.

* * *

"What's going on?" Sesshomaru asked as she closed the door behind her. She had a hurried look about her. He knew she was nervous, so he stood and went to her. He took her shoulders and looked into her cinnamon eyes, and then pulled her gently into his arms. She took a deep breath. He felt her shaking slightly. "What's got you so upset?"

"Oh, it's not that I'm upset, I'm just not sure how to tell you, because I had counted on Buddha telling you." She sighed and buried her face into his chest. He felt her smiling lips as she seemed to steady herself. Finally she looked back up to him and said, "Your father was a powerful demon, a daiyokai, and he created you, a more powerful daiyokai, with a powerful demoness. What do you think the child of a goddess and this stronger daiyokai will be?"

His honey colored eyes widened just the slightest bit. "You carry my child?"

"Buddha says to scent it out for yourself." She unzipped her pants and pushed them down just a bit, revealing her lower abdomen and hips. Sesshomaru went to his knees and pressed his nose to her skin. He could smell himself on her, as well as her fine soap and lotion. He inhaled her more deeply and found the pheromones of her body, her very scent signature, and then just a tiny little hint of something else. He focused on this faint, faint twinge of a smell. He realized deep in his memory he had smelled an odor like this before, and the memory of that day in the field with Rin and Shippo came flooding back to him. He sniffed again, smiling against her lower belly. He could smell the new life inside of her. He sat and just smelled of it and he put his hands to her lower back and pressed into her a little, picking up on the scent and burning it into his mind. Kagura was carrying his baby. The pure InuTaisho blood line would continue.

They stayed this way for a long while. Kagura stood smiling as tears rolled down her face, gently stroking Sesshomaru's hair. He held himself pressed to her body, simply smelling the scent of his child through her skin, smiling and occasionally kissing her bare stomach. They seemed to radiate with love and joy, turning the passing minutes into a touching and everlasting memory. Voices began to lilt up the stairs into their ears. It was time to go. "I don't want to move, Kagura," he whispered against her. "I want to stay right here forever and ever."

"My love, we will be shortly on our way to our forever. We must move now." She helped him to his feet where he kissed her deeply and then held her close to him as his first tears fell.

"I remember what it was like before, when I was an unfeeling and angry asshole. I remember feeling so angry that you had died giving me the secret of Naraku's heart only for that monster Moryomaru to tell me that your efforts to help me kill Naraku were all in vain. That was the day I broke Tokijin. I broke my weapon because of how I felt about you. I remember the ache in my heart as I wandered for days, wounded and weaponless, waiting for that Totosai to reforge my Tenseiga. Every thought was how I wanted to save you, and how there was no way that I could have."

Kagura squeezed him tighter. "I know. I was there with you. I was the wind that day."

He sobbed a little. "I remember the dream I had where my father was chasing me and asking me over and over if I had someone to protect. I told him I had Rin and Kohaku. But now I have you. And the baby. Our child. My big happy family." He smiled at her as he kissed her cheek and held her close again. "And now I know how good it feels inside. I used to make fun of InuYasha all the time to myself, about how stupid he was with his human heart and human mate and three quarters human children. But all of that never mattered to him, it was all about this feeling that I'm having right now. He has felt this kind of happiness for a long time. I only wish I could have experienced it sooner. I love you Kagura."

She kissed him tenderly as the children ran up and knocked on the door. It was Izumi's voice. "You've told him right? It's time to go, come on!" Sesshomaru threw the door open and picked the little girls up in one arm and the boy in the other. Then he roared from the top of the steps,

"THE INUTAISHO LINE CONTINUES!"

* * *

InuYasha had gotten the babies loaded into his minivan quickly, and he now sat idling at the end of the driveway, waiting for everyone else to get in a caravan behind him. Koga pulled out an ancient Volkswagen hippie van that his clan clamored into, along with Rin and Shippo and Kohaku. Kaede left her tiny Smart car where it was and piled in with Sesshomaru and Kagura in his beat up Toyota, and Sango was driving the SUV that contained her family. Everyone flashed their lights behind InuYasha to let him know they were ready, and they all took off down a damp country road, beginning a two hour drive that was heading to his house at the shrine.

In the time they drove their minds wandered all over the place, from the feudal era to the present, and in every place in between. Were they going to be sent to yet another time period? Were they going to go back? Was Buddha going to set everything as it had already been planned, letting Sango and Miroku die, leaving Ashoka to be stillborn, and leaving Sesshomaru to be the relentless general he'd always been? What if all of this was a dream? There were so many questions to ask, so many answers to seek. It was nearly maddening to have to travel such a distance when Buddha could have called them all there with his great power. None of them knew about Jakken yet, except of course Miroku and Sango's children. Even Kagura hadn't been in on the knowledge of the little imp that was Sesshomaru's retainer and vassal in his previous life.

The trip was achingly slow. Backwoods roads for over an hour, and then finally the main road for another hour. Even though it was only two hours the time seemed to drag on forever. The memories of their first time through Japan, their Sengoku Jidai memories, seemed to become stronger and clearer as they approached the shrine. By the time they arrived, they'd remembered nearly everything, even Sango and Ginta remembered their non-love affair, and Miroku remembered the night he'd practically raped the brewer in the neighboring village in order to pay for the sake he took to commit suicide with. Though they were unhappy memories, it felt good just the same to finally have them out in the open, instead of flitting around in the back of the brain like a floater in the eyeball: aware of its presence but never able to get a good look at it.

They followed InuYasha up a secret driveway that led them to the top of the steep hill where the shrine was located. Everyone looked on this holy place in eyes that were now unclouded, remembering the original Goshinboku, the original Edo. Their eyes turned towards the well house, and Rin screeched when she saw Master Jakken sleeping in the doorway.

He sat up slowly, elderly. His golden eyes began to shimmer with tears as Rin knelt beside him. "Oh, Rin! My little Rin!" She swept him up into her arms, only to hear him hissing in pain. She gingerly and quickly set him down, to which he said, "It's alright dear, I'm just a lot older now than what you remember. My bones are old now."

"I'm sorry Master Jakken." She might as well have said Mama when she called him that. He smiled at her as he began to spout tears in the corners of his beady eyes. She hugged him more gently now, as Kohaku and Sesshomaru made their way to where he sat.

"Lord Sesshomaru, I am so glad to see you are well," he said as he tried to bow.

Sesshomaru grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Bow no more to me. You are my friend, I don't wish to see you kneeling at my feet ever again." Respect and admiration shone through Jakken's very skin as he stood proudly in Sesshomaru's presence, eyeing Kagura carefully. "Meet your Lady. She carries the line of InuTaisho within her."

"I thought as much, my Lord. She suits you well. I'm proud to see our palace will be alive with a baby's laughter." He stood at her feet and bowed his head. "I am your servant as much as my Lord's Lady Kagura. Whatever you ask of me I shall do."

"For starters don't call me 'Lady'. I'm hardly a lady, and don't wish to tarnish such a title. Just call me Kagura, Master Jakken." Jakken's eyes widened as she addressed him formally. _Maybe I was wrong about her_ he thought to himself.

Kohaku knelt down in front of the toad. "Master Jakken. You've aged well."

Jakken waddled closer to him. "What have you done to your head boy!" He ran his creaking fingers over Kohaku's shaven head. "Your hair is all gone!"

"Spur of the moment decision. It will grow back, don't worry." He was smiling at him, fondly remembering Jakken's mother hen attitude.

He looked over Kohaku's shoulder and saw all of the others standing near Goshinboku, watching the exchange between Jakken and the rest of Sesshomaru's original pack. Miroku and Sango's mystic kids ran to greet him and then asked that everyone come into the well house.

The well was pulsing with a blue and purple light. It was making a crackling sound, like the time the girls created a pod to carry the travelers to heaven. The energy was everywhere. This sacred place from their past seemed to be alive and calling out to them. Once they all crowded into the well house the doors slammed shut. Kagura, Kichirou, Shinju and Izumi stood on the four sides of the well, and they began to chant a complicated mantra while accompanying it with the ritualistic mudras. The light stopped pulsating and remained solid and bright. The longer they chanted, the brighter it became. Just when it seemed it could not grow any brighter, Kagura called out, "Kagome, you used the well often before in your old life. Show us how to use it now."

Kagome took InuYasha's hand. They had all three babies with them as Kagome threw her long legs over the side and jumped in. InuYasha was right behind her. One by one they all went down. Finally all that remained were the children and Sesshomaru and Kagura.

"I'll be the last one," Shinju said as her voice trembled lightly. "Buddha said for it to be so."

Sesshomaru kissed her on her head and took Kagura in his arms and jumped down easily. Izumi and Kichirou joined hands and jumped in. Now only Shinju was left, chanting and doing the mudra symbols with great care. As her siblings and Oba-sama went down the well's shaft, the power to maintain the opening became harder for Shinju to generate.

"Child." Buddha was in her head again. "You are quite a powerful little girl. You have shown much dedication and faith to me. I have great things in store for you and all your siblings. Come to me now, without fear. I am waiting to catch you."

She stopped the mantra and did as she was told without delay. As soon as she was through, the well house exploded in a white hot crash of lightning from another approaching storm. It laid waste to the building, taking the well with it. There was definitely only one way out of the well passage now, and it was through Buddha himself.

* * *

When they became aware of their surroundings, they found themselves all clad in the finest silk robes ever made. They were all so white that they must have been made from pure light itself. They were light and gossamer feeling, but warm and cozy. Buddha sat on his golden lotus throne with the silk pillow that had a cherry blossom pattern on it. His face was happy and troubled at the same time. The audience he had gathered before him were all linked to a special event in history in some way or another. The heroes were Kagome, InuYasha, Miroku, Sango and Shippo. But the supporting roles were just as important, with Kohaku, Koga, Ginta, Hakkaku and Lord Sesshomaru. In addition to that, Kagura, Kaede, Rin and Jakken had backed all of them with their neutrality and support to help whomever as long as the whomever was trying to take down Naraku, the worst enemy Japan had ever known. Ayame and Hikari were incidentals, but none the less important. And the children of course were the products of a long and arduous journey for peace. They were the rewards for a job well done.

"I have brought you all here because I made a grievous error." Buddha did not smile, but he did not scowl either. He sat stoically and continued, "It was wrong for me to take you out of your elements and throw you into lives you couldn't recognize, even though I placed all the knowledge you would need into your hearts and minds. I have not used my discretion with you, and I nearly paid the price for it. I nearly drove all of you insane."

The others sat before him, nodding their heads slowly. They indeed had almost gone insane the four days they were in the modern era with their feudal memories resurfacing. "I've decided to put you back in the Sengoku period."

Kagome cried out, "But won't that mean that Miroku and Sango will still be dead? What about my son?" InuYasha felt his jaw clench.

"Kagome, I have thought this through very carefully. I realized that this would disrupt history for a bit. I have taken care of everything now. Let me tell you things you all must hear now."

He waved his hand and a flood of information entered their brains without him uttering a single word. He had made Kagura a demoness and had Sesshomaru impregnate her, as well as stirred new life inside of Sango. He had given Koga a woman he could mate with, and strengthened the bond between Ginta and Hikari. His reasoning for these things was that if these loves and lives were written on the stars, they could overcome death. Sango and Miroku were expecting another child, they had to go back to Edo, because how could they have made such a child if they were deceased. And now that Kagura was expecting as well, she would find her place at Sesshomaru's palace, alive and well as she ever was before, and beside the man who would treat her as the goddess she was. Koga and Ayame would unite their tribes, and Ginta and Hikari would be barons of that new tribe. Rin and Shippo had two sons inside her belly; Buddha would not allow them to stay in a time and place away from their families.

"The only thing I can't figure out how to put right is the matter of Ashoka." He spoke as if he were deep in thought.

"You can't take my son away from me a second time!" InuYasha yelled as Kagome held the infant to her chest tightly and sobbed into his long white hair. "It was painful enough the first time, I can't give him up now!"

"Shh, settle yourself half-demon. There is one way, but one of you here must forfeit your life so that this child might live."

"I don't understand," Miroku began. "Why do we have to lose one to save another? How could we possibly decide who?"

Buddha waved his hand and soon Kaede, Jakken, Kohaku, and Hakkaku stood on a dais before them all. "These are the four you have to choose from. They are outside of my reach and have no prophecy on the stars. One of these four must be given into heaven to take Ashoka's place. One life for another. This is the way of the world. For every man that dies a child takes his place. It is for you to decide which of these four will go home to Edo and who will stay with me."

Rin began to cry at the thought of losing her brother and mother figure, and Shippo cried at the thought of losing any of them. They had all proven themselves to be invaluable at one time or another, and so it was indeed a decision that no one wanted to make.

"Are we on a time limit here?" Koga asked.

"No, take as long as you must, I can only imagine how difficult such a decision must be."

"Then we'll stay here for eternity! We won't decide ever!" The others looked at Koga, and then to Buddha, who was shaking his head.

"The children cannot be born here, they must be born in Edo. That much is already written in the sky." There was a lot of noise going on as the crowd argued and lashed out at Buddha for having forced them to make a choice. Suddenly a voice cried out softly.

"I'll go."

No one heard him at first, so he turned to Buddha and said, "Let me go. Take me so that the child might live." The large extended family quieted. "Please, Buddha. Take me so that the baby may stay where it belongs, in his mother's arms and his father's gaze."

Jakken threw himself at Buddha's feet, crying.

"Master Jakken!" Rin began, "Why? Why do you volunteer?" She was crying hard now. Shippo held her tight against him and tried to calm her.

"My dear Rin, I have lived over a thousand human lifetimes. I have used many years for myself greedily. It's time to let someone else have a crack at the world. I've seen it enough that I've memorized every place there is to see, spoken every tongue there is to speak. I'm tired, and I'm ready. It is what should happen."

He turned and addressed everyone. "In the time that you were all gone, Lord Sesshomaru directed me to turn our palace into an orphanage, so that I could find children throughout Japan that were like Rin and Kohaku, without parents or a home, and take them in and save them from death. I have saved many children. It became my mission in life to rescue any child I came across. After spending the second half of my life wishing I could put them back in their parent's arms, I now have an opportunity to _keep_ a child in his parent's arms. I cannot pass this up. I will have given my life for my cause, and it will be a truly honorable and desired death." He turned back to Buddha. "Will you take me in place of the babe?"

Buddha smiled at him. "I will make you a saint Jakken. You have acted most honorably today, and throughout the time you were without your Lord. Come stand beside me. We shall share Nirvana together."

"Just a moment," he waddled out to his Lord's side. He reached inside the silk robe and pulled the pearl and brass charm from around his neck and gave it back to Sesshomaru. "Take these back, Lord Sesshomaru. They guided me in every action I made in the years you were gone. I never forgot your kindness to me that day. I remembered it every morning when I woke up and it set me cheerfully about my day, finding and bringing the orphans to our palace. I won't need them here, so you take them back now." Sesshomaru's eyes shone with unshed tears as he clasped the shortened chain around his neck. Jakken returned to Buddha's side, "I'm ready," he said.

Suddenly the blinding white light that seemed to pierce their very bodies had returned, and they felt themselves being lifted away from this place of peace and harmony. Rin's tears of sadness were dried away as she was filled with the knowledge that her beloved Master Jakken had not died a tragic horrible death, he had been assumed into heaven for his righteous sacrifice to save a child, and he would now be a saint and could watch over her own sons from beyond the world of the living. Sesshomaru was moved that the lowly vassal who'd followed him nearly everywhere possessed such a kind heart. And when he felt the first twinges of guilt arising from his belly when he thought of all the horrible things he'd done to him and made him do, Buddha expunged it, filling him with the knowledge that those occurrences were what led Jakken to become the saint that he had. Sesshomaru had already atoned for his sins against the toad; he needn't bother himself with the guilt from before any longer.

Soon they were all fading from the light. They all fell into a dreamless and peaceful sleep. The village was not as they had left it exactly. Miroku and Sango's house was still standing, there was no stone cairn where Miroku's body had been buried, and there was no funeral pyre that Sango had been burned on. It looked the way it did the day before Miroku and Sango ended their marriage in the open field. The only thing that remained as it had been after their deaths was InuYasha's house, but only because they still needed the large space that their big house had.

Just as the sun rose in Edo, they all began to awaken, in their proper time, and set about their old lives as if they'd never relinquished them at all. Sango was up scrubbing out diapers while Miroku helped get the rice on to boil. He would be heading out to help InuYasha with the laboring he did in the neighboring villages, giving up the scamming of old. After they'd eaten, he kissed his beautiful wife and was off. Sango had the girls help her with the chores, which got them done faster and gave them something besides mischief to do. The first thing she had them do was remove the rocks from the decoy bin at the side of the hut that faced the stunted plum tree and put them in a ring around the stone Buddha in the yard. Then the box was smashed up and put inside the house for firewood that night. The sake was poured out, the incense was thrown to the wind and the oils had been stored inside, just in case they needed to barter them for something later. Besides, it was benign as water and posed no threat to anyone.

After all this was done, Sango began to show her daughters the exercises she would use to get back into shape. They would all train together as a family, and then they would all be demon slayers to some degree, and not completely defenseless as she had always feared in this time of peace. The girls thought the yoga poses and simple movements were fun, and they even coaxed Kichirou into doing with them. Sango's fears had been assuaged while she was in heaven, and she realized now how stupid it was to have ever thought she couldn't regain her former glory. And now she would have the love and support of her entire family behind her as she did it. She didn't over do it though. She was pregnant again after all. She felt good when they finished, not too tired, not too sore, just right. It just felt good to be home and be in the right groove once again.

Rin and Shippo awoke at InuYasha's house, in the section that they thought of as theirs. Shippo's height had returned to just over four and a half feet, and his bushy tail stuck out from beneath the covers. Rin curled herself around him in the early dawn, and their lives would progress as Buddha intended; a true happily ever after.

InuYasha and Kagome were gazing at Ashoka. His tiny white dog ears and fangs had returned, making him look just like his father. InuYasha took him in his arms and cradled him as he simply looked upon his son's face. He kissed the baby's nose and the little brown eyes opened wide. He seemed to focus on his father, and then he smiled a wide smile, showing off his razor sharp fangs. His ears swiveled at the sound of InuYasha's laughter. "Too damn happy. You must get it from your Mama," he said as he smiled back at him. Kagome had Haruko in her lap, gently stroking her now pointy dog ears as she snored quietly. Tsukiko laid on Kagome's shoulder gazing out across to InuYasha as she yawned, revealing her own tiny fangs. Three infants and not two. It was complete bliss.

Koga and his clan awoke in the cave that had contained so many bad memories before. Now it was he who laid at the back of the cavern with Ayame. She was sprawled on her stomach very close to him, and he saw a wound on her neck. He moved her hair aside and saw that the scar tissue there was his mating mark. The northern and eastern wolf tribes were now one. He had broken Kagome's spell over him and he now had a bigger purpose in life. Ginta and Hikari were sitting next to each other at the mouth of the cave, holding hands as they watched the sun light up and warm the valley opposite them. Hakkaku stirred and then joined the wolf pack to hunt for the morning meal. He was filled with exhilaration as he helped to kill the deer with his mighty jaws. It was a true homecoming for the wolf group.

Sesshomaru and Kagura awoke in his bed at the palace. He pulled the sheet back and opened her kimono, then laid his head near her womb and simply breathed in the scent of his child, probably a son from the smell of it. Kagura's eyes were blood red, but full of love as she stroked his hair. It would become their morning ritual as the child within her grew. One of his servants came to tell him there were another fifteen children brought in during the night. It seemed he was now in charge of the orphanage. He rolled his eyes at this and decided he needed to do something about it and soon. But not right now. Right now he was engrossed in the smell of his mate and the smell of the pup she carried inside of her, and everything else would just have to wait.

As the others awoke, they carried their memories from their first lives and their second lives with them into these now correct third lives. They got about their daily routines and they shared each other's company as often as they had before. They decided one night about a week after their return to erect a shrine for Jakken at the palace. Sesshomaru spared no expense and had it made of red jade. There were two ornate golden hooks that Sesshomaru had added so that the chain that held the charms symbolizing Rin and Kohaku could hang on the front of it. The shrine was beautiful and now complete. It was guarded by three shifts of guards constantly, and there was never a time in the history of the shrine that there was not incense burning there. The orphanage was very successful, after Sesshomaru put Kohaku in charge of running it, instructing the children after they'd hit ten years of age in martial arts. Those who wished to were allowed to join Sesshomaru's army and were considered an elite force.

Buddha sat happily on his lotus and meditated. The world was now exactly as it should be, and peace and nirvana reigned within him, as Jakken sat by his side.


	19. Coda

***Disclaimer! I do not own these characters! They are property of Rumiko Takahashi! I gave names to 3 nameless children, but the characters are not mine! Jiro and Haru are my creations, as are Kagome and InuYasha's daughters: Haruko and Tsukiko, as well as his son Ashoka. Oh, and Hikari, she's mine too. And any other name you don't recognize, those are mine as well. :P ****

* * *

Lyrics to _The End_ property of the Beatles

And in the end

The love you take

Is equal to the love

You make

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It had been five years since Buddha had set our travelers down in their proper place. The little house on the hill with the stunted plum tree was now a large house with a stunted plum tree and two cherry trees in the yard. The girls were now almost ten years old, and they wore pretty kimonos, Shinju's a pale blue with white birds and Izumi's a pale lavender with fuchsia flowers. They were gifts from their Oji-sama for attaining their first demon slayer weapons and armor. Shinju wielded a set of sais and Izumi favored a chain mace. Kichirou was learning some moves with a kendo stick, but he was not yet ready for a real weapon. During most of the day, the girls trained by doing their chores in outrageous fashions. The girls hauled water from the river on yokes while walking with their knees bent into almost a crouch to strengthen their legs. They beat out the bedding everyday on one leg to improve their balance. They chased after their brothers and sisters willingly, allowing Sango to simply sit and bark out orders when necessary. She was pregnant, again, with number nine. She promised Miroku when he asked her to marry him that she would bear him ten to twenty children. She didn't mind. She'd come a long way from that time where she hated her life as a wife and mother, and now that Miroku was home more often and the other children were old enough to help her out, it wasn't as bad as it used to be. And to be honest, she certainly enjoyed making babies with her adept husband. She had trained Ginta all those lifetimes ago to be what she wanted him to be, but Miroku had trained her, and as always the sensei was better than the student.

She rubbed her swollen belly. She was due any day, and so she simply sat watching her family: her first set of twins Izumi and Shinju, Kichirou, another son named Yoshi, her second set of twins, two boys named Kota and Minoru; and the last two were girls, Naomi and Yuzuki. This next child was to be another boy, as foretold by both Sesshomaru and InuYasha. They decided to name him Jakken, after the saint that had saved Ashoka's life all that time ago.

Rin and Shippo's twin boys were the same age as Yoshi, two little hanyou kits that had black bushy little fox tails but no fangs. Nori and Ryo were larger than Shippo had been when he was young, so it seemed they'd inherited their mother's stature. Rin's training as a miko was now complete, and she lived with her family at Kaede's now, having moved in to care for her elderly trainer. She cared for Kaede nearly all day while Shippo and the boys worked her medicinal herb patch and vegetable garden. They were a happy little family.

InuYasha and Kagome had another daughter, one they named Kikyo in remembrance of all that she had done in the fight against Naraku with them. She was almost three now, and looked like Kagome's twin, all except her honey colored eyes. Her siblings, the snippy Tsukiko, the loving Haruko, and the playful Ashoka had grown strong and straight in the years following the whole Buddha ordeal. They had no recollection of any of it at all. As far as the new moon time, the only one who changed at all was Tsukiko, whose beautiful white hair turned black and her stripes at her wrists disappeared. Their other children were not bothered by the moon's phases at all. So once a month InuYasha and Tsukiko would sit sulking in the house until the next morning when they would be back to normal. InuYasha once joked that the only thing that would make that time worse for his daughter was if she was "ragging" at the same time. Kagome had rolled her eyes at him. It was so typical of him to think such things, and she loved him for it anyway.

Koga and Ayame had merged the tribes at a place where the northern and eastern territories met. He put Hakkaku in charge of the border furthest east and Ginta and Hikari in charge of the one furthest north. Hakkaku had met one of Ayame's cousins, a slip of a girl named Hina, who had an affinity for tracking large game and then ambushing it after the course of a few days. Being a predator himself, they were naturally made for each other. His first litter of pups was due in about two more months. Ginta and Hikari couldn't have pups. In the modern era Hikari had found out she had been born sterile. But Ginta being the good friend he was made a habit of going to Sesshomaru's Orphan Palace and taking the wolf demon cubs they came across. They had three little ones all under the age of seven. They watched the Northern borders intently, protecting their race and hunting grounds as Koga and Ayame managed to peacefully run two large tribes as one giant one. Their children numbered in the teens. She had two litters of six and then a third litter of three. Thank goodness there seemed to be plenty of people to help.

As for Sesshomaru and Kagura, they ruled the Western Lands with a fair but firm grip. Their son, Tamotsu, had just turned four years old and was already quite nimble and agile on his feet. Kohaku worked with him on the kendo stick and soon he would be ready to graduate to a small katana, much to his father's joy. Tamotsu was a strikingly beautiful child. He and Tsukiko could have passed for twins themselves. He had his father's long silvery white hair, the stripes on his face, but no crescent moon. He had those honey colored demon eyes and his mother's full lips. He appreciated the beauty in everything, and was often a thoughtful child. He was a lot more mature and focused than other children his age, and it made him seem aloof. But all anyone needed to see was any time he spent with his demon slaying cousins to see that he was indeed a normal and healthy child. He was Sesshomaru's ultimate pride. Kagura had tried to give him another child, but Buddha had come to her in a dream and told her she wouldn't get another shot at it until after Tamotsu could handle a sword proficiently. Thank goodness they had all of eternity together to make more children.

Buddha sat on his throne and looked out over the universe one day with Jakken. He showed him the gears and pulleys of time and space itself. "Listen how it hums along, Jakken. That's how you know all is well. You did right to sacrifice yourself so selflessly. It is the oil in our machine here."

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THE END


	20. Author's Notes

Mainly I just wanted to credit the chapter titles and respond to some of the reviews.

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 _A Touch Too Much_ by AC/DC (named for the touch too much sake and tobacco Sango had that fateful night of her confession to Miroku)

 _Ramble On_ by Led Zeppelin (for the fact she left and didn't go back)

 _Rock Bottom_ by KISS (for how Miroku felt after he'd divorced Sango)

 _Fool in the Rain_ by Led Zeppelin (for when he went out into the rain to get more sake out of the storage bin on the side of the house)

 _Domino_ by KISS (For the dominatrix in Sango)

 _Trouble Walkin'_ by Ace Frehley (Miroku the drunk, has trouble walkin' literally and fuguratively, because he's fucking that woman for his liquor and it weighs heavy on his mind, making it hard to walk under such a burden)

 _Every Rose Has its Thorn_ by Poison (The rose is Miroku seeing Sango again, the thorn is the mating mark. The rose is the babies are born, the torn is one of them doesn't make it)

 _Time in a Bottle_ by Jim Croce (for all it takes in a little time in a bottle, and anyone can drown their sorrows away, but spend too long and you won't be able to come out)

 _The Other Side_ by Ozzy Osbourne (for Miroku being able to communicate with his children from beyond)

 _Darkness, Darkness_ by the Youngbloods (Robert Plant's version is FANTABULOUS) (Named for the darkness in Sango's soul that had begun to consume her)

 _Gone Away_ by the Offspring (self explanitory, Sango's death chapter)

 _In the Light_ by Led Zeppelin (named for Sesshomaru stepping out of his cold icy shell and into the light of the life he should have had, as well as Sango's body finally being purified by funeral fire)

 _Hole in the Sky_ by Black Sabbath (The twins send our heroes to heaven)

 _Upside Down_ by Robert Plant (The first of the modern era chapters)

 _Come Together_ by the Beatles (when everyone meets at Koga's house and shares their odd experiences)

 _The Lemon Song_ by Led Zeppelin (Yes it's a real song, and yes it's about what you think it's about)

 _Calling to You_ by Robert Plant (When Shinju picks up on Buddha's unhappiness, as if it were calling to her)

The Long and Winding Road by the Beatles (The long and complicated path they take for Buddha to get their lives back on track)

 _Coda_ by Led Zeppelin, it's actually an album, not a song (a coda in musical terms is the end leg of a song)

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Really the only review I wanted to address was this one from Sango-wa-Taijia:

_*Drops fic* Done. I can't read anymore of this, it's too heart breaking. Not only do I have such a bad taste in my mouth from the Ginta affairs, but it's hard to stomache that there's love involved - I highly doubt there is any if she needs a drug to feel it. And you killed Miroku! I'm aware you said the fic was dark, but you should have really included character death and alternate pairings in the discription. I think I'm going to be depressed for a week, if not more ...  
I think you took an interesting angle in Sango's personality, but you've skipped over a lot of her other traits in regards to this fic. I suppose it's essential for your message, but I don't agree with you._

Concerning Sango's disturbing affairs with Ginta: It's hard sometimes to imagine why seemingly sane people do the things they do. Sango was a normal and healthy woman up until she took that first taste of the opium. She became addicted with the first taste. At that point she became a puppet to the toxins within herself and did whatever it took to get, maintain, and or heighten the senses she was feeling. I wanted to make it so that she felt that feeling you get in the heat of battle, meaning what she should have done was gone out and fought a giant bear or something. Instead she rationalized this feeling into something she felt she could satisfy, which happened to be raunchy unprotected sex. Once that sense of satisfaction was in her, she didn't care that there were other ways to satisfy that fire. She just kept using that tried and true method she developed that rainy night. She felt nothing for Ginta without the poison. In fact, without the poison, she felt so guilty that she probably had a hard time looking him in the eye. But when she got that shit in her bloodstream, and that lustful fire burned down below in the pit of her stomach, she was full of all kinds of love (read lust) for him. The one time he took her without the aid of the drug when Shippo came to get her (which I thought was a great and saucy little exchange regarding his own sexual prowess) she said whatever it took to satisfy Ginta, only so she could come to her own pleasurable end. She had become no better than today's crack whores. It was so damn sad. I completely agree with what you wrote, but at the time I was trying to get you to finish it, knowing a happy ending was coming but I didn't want to come out and just tell you what I had planned.

As far as putting in the description what the story is about, doesn't that kill a potential audience? If you want to know what it's about you have to read it! Maybe I'm still too new to understand that… After all this is only my second serious work.

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A big thanks to knifethrower who comments on every chapter and makes my freakin day every time. The love scenes between Sesshomaru and Kagome in knifethrower's epic Double Vision helped me for my tender moments (and the naughty bits were good too! Go read it now!) A big thanks to LC Rose whose epic work called "collared" helped inspire me for my racy scenes (go read that too!). A big thanks to everyone who reads my work! Remember to review me sometime!

**BE SURE TO LOOK FOR THE COMPANION TO THIS STORY: THE GALLERY OF MEMORY! Chock full of Mir/San pairings that they both recall as they are apart from each other! COMING SOON!**


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